Changing Me
by Skyelight
Summary: Tidus, rich and cocky. Yuna, new and attractive. What will happen when they meet each other in Highschool with their clashing personalities?
1. Rumors already

**_Chapter One_**

**_Rumors already_**

--------------------------------

"YUNIE! Wake up all ready!"

The sun shone brightly through the small room of Yuna's as Rikku enthusiastically jumped around her room, hoping in vain that her heavy sleeper cousin would soon wake up for their first day at Zanarkand High. Yuna, however, not only did not budge to the shrillness of her Al-bhed cousin's voice, she didn't even let out a moan of recognition. Somehow, the thought of being _exchanged _to this new school did little to appeal to Yuna.

"Ugh, Rikku," she managed to say whilst squinting her bi-coloured eyes, "ten more minutes, just ten more minutes." and with that, Yuna pulled her bed sheets over her head and continued sleeping.

Rikku raised one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows and placed her hands on her hips before protesting, "Do you really think I'm gonna fall for that trick again. 'Oh rikku come back later, I promise I'll wake up' then lock the door so I won't be able to come back in?"

Yuna uncovered herself from her bed sheets and put on her sweetest face and voice, "Uhuh."

Rikku simply giggled, "Hell no."

Understanding at once that fate would not allow her to sleep in with the help of her hyper cousin's voice, she groggily pulled the yellow flowered sheets away and clumsily made her way into the bathroom, mumbling incoherent strings of light curses.

"Great! I guess I'll see you in the kitchen, and don't keep me waiting!" Rikku yelled as she was already making her way out of the brunettes room.

Yuna simply sighed, _'I sure hope this school isn't as bad as Besaid High.'_

------------------------------

Yuna took a deep breath as the two girls approached their destination. The girls glanced at each other before making their way into the school gate, leading into an enormous newly built school.

Yuna glanced around the yards and tables and noticed one particular thing that everyone had in common. Majority of the students had a very good sense of fashion, even though she inwardly cringed at some who seemed a little too, well, extreme for high school. She swallowed nervously as the realization of her being totally foreign to this new school suddenly dawned on her. She started to feel subconscious and wondered if she looked okay in her navy jeans and white T-shirt. Taking another glance around the school yard, she grudgingly admitted that she was under dressed.

Rikku, on the other hand, seemed unfazed by the fact that they were new and totally clueless about the new territory they had just stepped into, and continued walking alongside Yuna. The petite blonde, unlike her modest cousin, was dressed in shorts that appeared a size too small for her and a tight fitting cardigan over a halter top.

As both continued strolling through the school, they realized something rather odd. Usually, if an unfamiliar face walked into the school grounds of Besaid high, everyone's attention would've been diverted to them, however, here in Zanarkand, not only were they not acknowledged, but it almost appeared as if they were being ignored. No one paid attention to them whatsoever; everyone just seemed occupied with talking amongst their groups, acting as if the new arrivals were invisible.

"Oh my God, did you hear? Tidus broke up with Cassandra after only four days! Can you believe it? I knew she wasn't good enough for him. Well the point of me announcing this is to make all you girls know that he is now a free man." Yuna heard a brunette squeal as she brushed past a huddled group who had now erupted into loud cheers.

"Tidus? I think not! Tell me something worth listening to, hmm, like maybe Squall. Unlike Tidus, he's _manly_. Yep, another guy got beaten up by him. If you ask me, he got what he deserved. After all, who's stupid enough to spill milk on the Lord himself." another girl voiced her opinion on this so called 'manly' Squall before triggering a heated debate.

Yuna and Rikku looked at each other with a 'what the hell?' expression on their faces. They were both not impressed with the rumors about these two guys. Breaking a girls heart like that and beating up a guy for an accident so pathetic confirmed that the thought of avoiding them was beyond right.

"Gosh, that's just sad" Rikku mumbled loud enough only for Yuna's ears.

Yuna, who was trying to suppress her laughter, simply shook her head and walked off with Rikku next to her, leaving the group of girls arguing at who the ultimate _Lord _of the school was. Hoping to walk off quickly to release their laughter, their heads were tilted down, keeping their amusement to themselves. However, in the process of looking at their shoes whilst walking, Rikku accidentally bumped into a figure in front of her.

"Hey, careful." the person coolly warned

Rikku raised her head to come face to face with a long black haired girl, "Oh sorry, I wasn't looking." she apologized genuinely. She definitely didn't want to be messing with someone like the raven haired beauty, she simply seemed intimidating.

The long haired girl merely smiled at her, dismissing the accident, "That's okay, just next time, be more careful, you don't want to be bumping into people like my brother."

Rikku and Yuna gave her a questioning look, "Oh, don't worry 'bout him, my name's Lulu, yours?" she said, stretching her arm out to shake both the new girls' hands.

"Well my name's Yuna, and she's my cousin Rikku, we're both new students." Yuna stated while waiting for Rikku to let go of Lulu's hand.

"Oh, so you guys are the two new students, well lucky you, you guys are in my homeroom, plus my brother and his friends," the last five words weren't so enthusiastic as the others, but nonetheless, Yuna and Rikku just dismissed it.

The bell for entering classes had gone after minutes of meeting their first friend; therefore, bearing in mind that today was their first day of school, the two girls hurriedly made their ways to their homeroom with the help of Lulu. It felt like a maze after long countless hallways and doors; however they were finally able to make it there without doing anything embarrassing like dropping books. As soon as the three girls entered the room, they sat themselves on single tables next to each other. A few 'Hey Lulu' or 'Hi Lulu' were heard amongst the class when people realized that she had entered.

All the females in the class were either talking about Tidus or Squall and both Yuna and Rikku just didn't understand why they were always the main topic on everyone's minds.

"Hey, you seem quite popular." Rikku said while pulling her pencil case out of her bag.

Lulu simply laughed and shook her head, "The girls here are well, very two faced. They do things always with a purpose behind it. They suck up to me only because of my brother. To put it simply, they could not care less about me."

Immediately the class went quiet as the teacher entered the room.

"Good morning class, I'm your homeroom teacher for this year and I'm sure you all know my name, but for those who don't, my name's Miss Daniels." she cheerfully introduced herself. She looked like she was in her late twenties with long blonde hair tied in a tight bun.

"Okay just let me quickly do the roll. Sarah?"

"Present,"

"Michael?"

"Present,"

"Jessi-," much to her annoyance, she was cut off as the opening of the door announced the arrival of none other than the 'Lords' of the school.

In came three males, one with orange hair, one brunette and one blonde.


	2. Money Solves it all

**_Chapter 2_**

**_Money Solves it all_**

**_--------------------------------------------_**

A sudden burst of whispering filled the entire room. Every single girl in the classroom started giggling and squealing, showing obvious signs that the entrance of the three men had successfully made their day. The whispering became louder and the cocky grins on the brunette and blonde's faces at the same time also grew wider.

"Ahem!"

Miss Daniels cleared her throat, clearly annoyed with the fact that they were not only late, but were also the culprit of the noise the class caused.

"Well well well, if it isn't Wakka, Squall and Tidus, now tell me, why doesn't it surprise me anymore that you three men would be the last ones to arrive to class?" She asked, standing up with hands on hips while the three slowly sat themselves down at the back of the class where their names were invisibly imprinted on.

Yuna and Rikku both looked at each other with the same thoughts in mind.

_'So these two guys are the ones everyone talks about.'_

"Well you see," Squall started, "You never seem to be interested in us, so you know, we decided to make our grand entrance just for you Miss Daniels." he said.

"Yeah," followed Tidus, "We might actually come to class early for once, only if you give us your phone number, you know, for homework and stuff,"

Squall and Tidus suddenly burst out laughing, "Homework, that's a good one man." stated Squall, both high fiving each other.

Miss Daniels simply sighed, "Why do I even bother, anyway, I'll just get on with my role calling if that's okay with you two?"

They both shrugged before Squall mumbled, "Whatever."

"Thank-you, Jessica?"

"Present,"

"Lawrence,"

"Present,"

"Rikku,"

"Here!"

"Yuna,"

"Here,"

Miss Daniels paused for a few seconds, intently staring at the two previous names she had just called out, "That's right, you two are the new students aren't you?"

"Yep!" Rikku squealed.

"Well, welcome to Zanarkand High girls, what school did you come from?" Miss Daniels asked, adjusting her glasses on her face.

"Besaid High," Yuna simply stated.

"I see, well I hope you enjoy your stay at Zanarkand high," she smiled sweetly before finishing off her roll calling.

Miss Daniels had allowed the whole class to chat for while as she was trying to sort some of her paper work out. It appeared that she was not succeeding to find the thing she needed, however, no one paid any attention to her for practically all the girls in the room had averted their attention to Tidus and Squall, all the girls except Yuna, Rikku and Lulu.

"So Lulu," Squall said, pushing his table closer to Yuna and Rikku, "Don't you think you should at least introduce me to your new friends?"

Lulu rolled her eyes before saying, "Well, this is Yuna and on her right is Rikku, happy?" she asked, slightly annoyed.

"Oh, nice to meet you, I'm Squall, as you may already know, and these two here are my two best buds, Tidus and Wakka. I'm Lulu's step brother,"

"Unfortunately." Lulu added. Squall merely smiled. Even though they were only Stepsiblings, they had a very good relationship with each other and cared for each other in a sister and brotherly way.

They had become stepsiblings ever since they were at a young age; therefore they pretty much considered each other as real brothers and sisters. However, their personalities could be described as water and fire. Squall was a cocky and over confident person, who chooses his friends and often used his good looks to get what he wanted. Lulu, on the other hand, was more of a modest and cool person, who can befriend almost anyone.

Rikku giggled while Yuna simply smiled at Squall. She thought he was pretty nice, but remembered the previous rumors she had just heard about him therefore decided to maintain her distance. She knew quite well that the only reason why he was so nice was because he had a reputation to live up to. Tidus, who uncharacteristically remained quiet throughout the whole introduction process, was just about to say something but was interrupted by Miss Daniels.

"Okay class settle down please, I have just found the locker numbers assigned for all of you when the new lockers come in tomorrow, so will guys please calm down and come up and collect this little white sheet with your combination numbers?"

Unfortunately, the class once again ignored her, with their attention on both Tidus and Squall. Only this time, she wasn't as patient anymore; she was already tired and sick of this class and she had only had them for 15 minutes. But it did not amaze her, bearing in mind that Squall and Tidus were both in her class.

The fact that they were both son's of wealthy men was an advantage to them. Doing what they felt like doing, having what they want. Nothing could stand in their way, not even teachers or principals.

"Fine," she sighed "the last person to come up here and collect their locker combination will… will have to clean up the whole yard."

Miss Daniels smiled proudly as a sudden gush of students hurriedly ran up to her table. As for Tidus, Squall and Yuna, they simply took their time noticing the pile up ahead of them.

After pushing and shoving, everyone in the class had all gotten their little white piece of paper except for Tidus and Yuna. There was just one last sheet on the table and they both grabbed the sheet at the same time, unfortunately, Yuna had grabbed it just seconds before Tidus did, but the blonde didn't let go. Sensing something grabbing onto the other end, they both looked up to see who or what was holding on to it. As their eyes met, they were both not pleased with the situation.

_'Oh gees, great way of avoiding him Yuna, and why isn't he letting go of the paper, he should have some decency of allowing a girl to have it.'_

Yuna thought silently to herself.

_'What the hell? Why isn't she letting go of the paper, sure she's okay looking, but who the hell does she think she is_?'

Tidus thought as he glared at her.

"Um, excuse me, but can you please let go of my paper?" Yuna asked, annoyed that she had to even ask.

"Why don't you let go of it, why do I have to?" Tidus snapped back.

Yuna was amazed, how could anyone be so… so spoilt. With a 'I cannot believe this' expression, she retorted, "Well that's because I got a hold of it first, sorry, but I hope you have fun picking up trash on the oval,"

_'Who the hell does she think she is?!'_

Tidus was just about to counter back at her, but Wakka interrupted him, "Yo bro, just drop it, let the girl have it, plus you can always pay someone to do it for you ya?" he suggested.

Tidus pondered on the thought for a while, and reluctantly allowed the paper to slip though his hand. It wasn't so much of the rubbish thing, of course he knew he could've paid someone, and that was exactly what he had planned, but the fact that someone had actually gone against him was what caught him off guard.

"Have it," he mumbled, still glaring at her before reaching for the remaining piece of white paper.

Yuna victoriously smiled, "Thank-you."

"Well, seems to me that Tidus here, will have to go clean the yard up." Miss Daniels smirked as she had found the little scenario somewhat amusing. She must admit she was astonished to actually see someone stand up to Tidus. She mentally noted that this year would be an interesting one.

Tidus merely laughed, "I mean do you seriously think I'm gonna do it? Man, Miss Daniels, I must admit, I'm a little disappointed in you." and with that, the bell rang and the class left the room, leaving Yuna and Tidus behind in the class alone.

Yuna was silently packing her things into her bag feeling Tidus' eyes scanning her body, and she knew quite well, that there was a certain place where he would stop and linger longer than the other parts.

Tidus was looking all over her from behind and couldn't help but stare at her ass.

_'You better watch your back from today onwards.'_

_---------------------------------------_

AN: Short, I know, but the length will increase as we go on.


	3. Let the Pranks begin!

**_Chapter 3_**

**_Let the Pranks begin!_**

**_------------------------------------------_**

"Man Tidus, seems to me you got yourself a little trouble maker there. She sure is different to all the girls here. But I guess it's excusable, she's still new and a bit stupid but she'll learn soon." Squall managed to joke while Tidus kept his straight face.

With a one-hour break for recess, the two men made their way down the wide long corridors with lockers attached together on each side. It was always a hassle for Tidus and Squall to get through the corridors keeping in mind that majority of the girls wanted a piece of them, however, because it was like an every day thing, they managed to squeeze through the swoon of girls sooner or later.

"You're right about her being different, but trust me, she's nothing to me, she's not _gonna_ be a trouble maker if I don't even notice her." he cockily replied.

"Yeah whatever man, anyways, what's going on with the cleaning up the yard issue?" Squall asked as they slowly walked past a few giggling girls

"Oh, I just paid some guy some cash to do it for me, no stress."

"Yo! Guys over here!"

The yell had come from Wakka who was sitting on a large table situated on the yard with a huge group of both guys and girls, officially labeled as the _'cool' _group. A chorus of Hi's was heard amongst the large group, as they sat themselves down on the table.

"So Tidus, I heard you had some trouble with this new chick, am I right?" asked a blonde guy with a pretty girl sitting on his lap.

"What! You're making it sound as though I had trouble in bed with her man! She's just different to the average girls here." he replied, mumbling the last eight words

"You mean, she was able to resist your charms, Tidus, Mr. I am the hottest thing alive?" another of his friends sarcastically added.

Tidus shot him a death glare before getting interrupted by one of his girl friends, "Hey, isn't she Yuna the new chick?"

The entire group turned their heads to see who the blonde girl was pointing out, "Yeah that's her alright." Squall stated, spotting the bi-colored eyed girl with her blonde cousin and Lulu.

"Woah man, damn she is one fine chick. Look if you don't want her, I'll take her." the girl in his lap gave him a disapproving looking as she elbowed the blonde playfully in the abs.

"I know! And look at the other one, Rikku, she's hot as well." Squall added

"You guys are kidding right? Tell me you're kidding because seriously, if you're not, then you're either blind or your standards have dramatically lowered. I'm glad at least Tidus' standards are still standing its ground." a voice added from the group, a voice belonging to a brown haired girl who went by the name of Myleena.

Ever since she laid eyes on Tidus, she was physically and mentally attracted to him. Yes, she was very attractive herself; however, Tidus was never able to develop feelings for her anymore than just a friend. But no matter how many times Tidus tried dropping that hint on her lightly; she never seemed to get the point.

"Oh yeah man, what about Cassandra, heard you dumped her." Wakka asked whilst eating his lunch.

Tidus merely shrugged and answered lamely, "I don't know, guess it wasn't working out, so yeah that's basically it."

------------------------------

It was the last class of the day, and Yuna had successfully avoided Tidus the whole day despite the little incident in the morning. Unfortunately she was stuck with them in her last class. Squall, she didn't really mind him, but still avoided him, remembering that he was also rich and spoilt just like Tidus.

"Hey Yunie, come on, it's our last class! Quit looking so down." But Yuna couldn't help it; she just couldn't stand seeing his face.

"Alright alright I'm coming." and with that, she closed her rusty locker door and walked unusually slow with Lulu and Rikku back to their original classroom, their last subject for the day.

-------------------------------

Everyone was seated back to his or her normal places by the time Miss Daniels entered. She greeted the class with a smile on her face and looked oddly enthusiastic. Possibly because it was the last class and she simply couldn't wait to get out of this hell hole. At least that was what Yuna thought.

"Class, seeing that it's the last class of the first day, I don't want to get any work started, so I'm just going to spend this lesson giving you the facts regarding your Retreat camp."

The whole room burst into excited whispers upon the mentioning of the Retreat camp. Tidus simply prayed that it wasn't one of those boring ones like the camp he went to last year where Myleena had _accidentally _walked in on him while he was changing after his shower. 'Till this very day, Tidus was still thankful that he had a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Quiet class. Anyway, this camp will be held on next Monday, so you all have exactly one week to prepare yourselves. I advise you not to leave things to the last minute due to the fact that this camp is a two week period trip."

"Wow, a two week trip, that's the longest we've ever had," a voice stated from the front of the room.

"Yes Simon, it is, but it is a retreat camp. So luckily for you guys, it's pretty much just taking a break before your exams. We don't want anyone distracted so this year we decided to get it over and done with so it doesn't interrupt any of your classes." Miss Daniels informed.

"But what's the point of this camp, I mean, we already have breaks," asked another student, adjusting his thick glasses, seemingly disappointed with the news.

"Well, it's to show your independency and how well you work without teachers there... and, you have to write a reasonably long and detailed essay about it which counts for 23 of your overall mark at the end of your first semester. The essay is one of the main assignments this year, so I advise you to not think any less of it than your other assignments."

Everyone's brows shot up as soon as the part where she said, 'without teachers there' was announced. They did, however, ignore the catch to the camp at the end of her sentence.

"So where are we going exactly?"

Miss Daniels adjusted her glass and proceeded to answer the questions "Well, I'm not sure, because you're going to be split up into groups, meaning you'll be going to different places,"

"Oh, do we get to choose our groups?" Simon asked eagerly

"No, it is already chosen for all of you, but you won't find out until Friday,"

A few moans were heard, not only because they weren't going to find out their groups any time sooner, but also because the groups were already selected.

"Okay, seeing that we only have a few more minutes in class, you can talk amongst yourselves quietly until you are dismissed,"

Straight away, Rikku turned herself towards Yuna so she was facing her, "Oh my gosh Yunie, this camp sounds so cool! I wonder if we're in the same group."

Yuna smiled back widely at her, "Yeah does sound interesting."

As Rikku was about to say something, a voice had spoken up just before her, "Yay, this means I get to sleep with as many people as I want because the teachers aren't gonna be there, right Yuna?" Tidus sarcastically remarked.

Squall simply smirked, "Well, I don't know about Yuna, but I definitely havta agree with you man." he agreed, placing his two feet on the table.

Yuna gave them both a dirty look, but nevertheless ignored them. "Anyway! Rikku, Lulu, wanna go shopping after school on Thursday, you know, for the stuff we need,"

The two girls nodded in agreement before packing their things into their bags ready to leave as soon as the bell went.

"Well sis, seeing that you're gonna go shopping tomorrow, you might as well get me some spare 'you know whats', just incase I run out." Squall said, both Tidus and him laughing.

Lulu rolled her eyes and sighed. Being the mature sister that she was, she was already use to her brother.

-------------------------------

Yuna parked her car in the school car park before she hurriedly walked to class. As she positioned her bag properly on her right shoulder, she thought,

_'Great, late on the second day, just great, and why didn't Rikku wake me?'_

She however quickly dismissed her thoughts as she arrived to the entrance of her homeroom.

"Yuna, late already on the second day." Miss Daniels said, not sounding too pleased.

"Sorry." Yuna mumbled, seating herself down between Rikku and Lulu.

"Class, the new lockers have just been in today, so in a few minutes I'm going to let you off few by few to organize your things." Miss Daniels informed the class.

With that, she ordered some students first to pack their belongings into the locker while Yuna took this opportunity to tell Rikku off for not waking her.

"Rikku! Why didn't you wake me up this morning?" she questioned.

"I tried, but you locked your door, and you still couldn't hear me when I literally smashed your door." Rikku replied, hands in the air in a surrendering gesture.

Yuna thought for a while, then realized what had prevented her from hearing Rikku.

Stupid MD player 

It wasn't long until Yuna was called out into the corridors to pack her books into her new locker, which was situated next to Lulu's.

She carefully spun the numbers on the combination lock before opening the locker door. However, as soon as she fully opened the door, she gasped at the sight. It was badly spray painted with scratches everywhere. She squinted at the smell the paint had caused and noticed a note stuck on the back of the locker. The handwriting was messy, but not to the point where she couldn't read it. The note read,

'Hope you like the way we decorated your locker, it was done especially for you Yuna'

Yuna was infuriated, she had a pretty good idea who was behind this and was not going to tolerate with it. So she ripped the note off the locker furiously and stormed off to Tidus on the other side of the large corridors.

"If you think that this is funny, then you're pretty sick." she spat at him, shoving the piece of paper in his face.

"What? Have you gone crazy or something, I didn't write this note to you, I wouldn't waste my precious time on someone like you." he countered back.

"Oh really, why don't you take a good look at my locker and then tell me you didn't do it." she hissed, glaring at him.

"Fine I will." he said, brushing past Yuna as Squall just stood there staring amusedly at the two as they argued.

"Holy shit! What the hell happened to your locker! I guess you have more people hating you than I thought." Tidus laughed, arms crossed against his chest.

Yuna stood there for a while looking deep into his ocean blue eyes to see if he was really telling the truth. It was until Tidus waved his hands in front of her face that she had snapped out of her trance.

"Whatever Tidus, but I swear, if other crap happens to me today, I'll know where my paybacks are headed to." she hissed before slamming the piece of paper against Tidus' chest.

"As I said, why the hell would I waste my time on you!?" he spoke, raising one of his eyebrows.

"I'm glad, just remember your words." and with that, she turned around and left, leaving to go ask for another locker. Tidus stood there for a while, and thought.

_'I wonder who did this to you, but hey, you deserved it.'_

------------------------------

Tuesday – recess 10.45am

After the incident about the locker, Yuna was relieved that she had not noticed anything unusual, although she doubted that feeling of relief was going to last. And she was right.

"Hey Yunie, can I borrow your cell phone, I need to make a phone call to cancel my appointment at the hairdressers," Rikku asked politely.

"Yeah sure,"

Yuna began shuffling through her bag and pulling things out, but failed to find her phone. Normally she wouldn't really get mad over this matter, but with all the things that have happened to her in the past two days, it triggered her annoyance. Suddenly, her cell phone ringing tone was heard clearly throughout the yard yet she couldn't tell where it was. She began walking at a quick pace everywhere looking for her phone with the help of Rikku and Lulu.

At this point, practically everyone including Tidus and Squall on the yard was looking at Yuna cluelessly walking around searching for her phone. The ringing started to get louder as she approached the garbage bin, and it was then, she realized where her phone was. She winced as she stepped closer while Myleena's smirk grew wider.

Yuna squeezed her eyes shut as she slowly reached down to grab her phone, which was only an arm stretch away. To her disgust, she had to remove a banana peel that was purposely placed on top of her phone before she could actually reach it. Finally when the phone was in her grasp, she turned abruptly to face Tidus. He on the other hand had already been watching her since the very beginning.

Expecting to see a smile on her face for finding her phone, he was instead looking at a majorly pissed of girl glaring right back at him. Then it suddenly hit him, she had thought it was him who did this to her and remembered what she had promised him before.

'I swear, if other crap happens to me today, I'll know where my paybacks are headed to.'

"Man, I think she thinks it's you again," Squall chuckled realizing the way she had been looking over at Tidus.

"Yeah well so what if she does, not that I really give a crap anyways." But as soon as he turned his head back towards Yuna's direction, she was no longer there.

Tidus had a weird feeling that something unpleasant was going to happen to him, but quickly let go of that thought when he noticed Squall watching him intently.

"What?" he asked, turning around to face the group again.

"Seriously, did you do this to her, I mean if you did, that's pretty hars-," but he was cut in by Tidus before he got to finish his last words.

"Are you serious?! Of course I didn't, I wouldn't wast-,"

"'Waste my time on her anyway', I know I know Tidus, you've said it over a million times, gees." Squall mocked

"Yeah whatever, I'm gonna go work out on Thursday after school, count you in?"

"Yeah, okay, your house or mine?" asked Squall.

"Yours, my dad's been really pissing me off these few days."

"These few days?" Squall joked.

Tidus merely shrugged before walking off the yard alone to his yellow sports car.

---------------------------------

An: Hmmmm… is Yuna gonna get feisty and retaliate? Or is she going to continue getting pushed around by whoever it is?


	4. Yet another prank is pulled

**_Chapter 4_**

**_Yet another prank is pulled_**

**_------------------------------------------_**

Yuna awoke the next morning feeling the hot sunrays spreading on her body. She groggily turned around to face her clock and to her amazement; she was actually early. She stretched quietly before gradually getting off her bed, getting herself prepared for another long day at school. She figured that since she woke up so early today, she would actually take her time in selecting her clothes.

She scanned her little wardrobe and finally realized that she positively needed to go shopping, which reminded her about the date she had with the girls. This caused a smirk to form on her lips as she reminisced about her crazy shopping days.

'Oh well, until then, I guess I'll just have to wear my old clothes.' 

So with that thought, she randomly grabbed a pair of black pants and a tank top. Taking her time, she walked into her little en suite and refreshed herself. Half an hour later, after finishing tying all her hair up, she glanced at the mirror one last time and made her way downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast.

"Hey!" Rikku squealed, choking on her eggs, "You're early today," she exclaimed. Yuna simply giggled and sat down on the table drinking her orange juice, "I know," was her simple yet satisfying reply.

"Well that's good, today we can actually arrive together at school early for the first time!" Rikku exclaimed,

"And that's suppose to be good?"

-------------------------------

Wednesday – Lunch break – 12.45

Yuna stared at the food that was being served in the cafeteria while Rikku and Lulu were standing behind her complaining about the long wait. She wasn't exactly certain if she really wanted to eat what they provided, however decided to give the food a try anyway.

People were pushing and shoving due to the lack of space in the big cafeteria after what seemed like the whole school had gathered in. This had caused accidents such as people dropping their trays of food or people spilling drinks on other students. Yuna didn't like this; not one bit at all, but again decided to ignore the unpleasant feeling building up inside of her.

After a while, Yuna, Rikku and Lulu finally got out of the line after being served the thing that was supposedly called _'food'_.

"Yuna, still going shopping after school tomorrow?" Lulu asked, not once giving Yuna any eye contact when she asked the question for they were occupied on her food tray.

"Yeah," she approved, slightly turning her head around to look at Lulu, wrong move. Within that time she took her eyes off the tray, someone had bumped into her, causing her ice coffee to spill all over her top.

Yuna, feeling the sudden coldness on her chest, shot her head up with a look of shock and anger at the person who had just knocked into her. That poor girl simply stood there in front of Yuna shaking rapidly as she noticed the expression on Yuna's face.

"I-I am s-so sorry," the freckled face brunette stuttered.

But Yuna merely stood there. Still shocked at what just happened, she allowed a thought to cloud over her mind

'That's it Tidus, that was the last straw.' 

Yuna was definitely on the verge of exploding. She was aware that this girl had done it deliberately, but not of her own free will, she was clearly too gutless to pull something off like that. Someone must've ordered her. That someone, Yuna thought… was Tidus.

"Yunie, are you okay?!" Rikku cried, seeing the whole thing happen right in front of her. Judging by Yuna's expression, it was clear to both Rikku and Lulu and practically everyone in the cafeteria that she was not only shocked but also fuming.

"I'm fine." she slowly gritted through her teeth as her eyes continued scanning the whole cafeteria. Everyone was silent with the exception of the 'cool group'.

Tidus, Squall and Myleena had watched the whole thing happen from the very beginning, and were currently laughing so hard, they looked like they were going to cry. Yuna, full of rage, slammed her tray down onto the floor and stormed outside the cafeteria. The laughter died instantly as the realization of how angry Yuna had finally dawned on Tidus. Lulu and Rikku, both irritated as well after seeing that happen to their friend, pushed their way over to Tidus and Squall.

"Squall, how can you laugh at what just happened, don't forget the way you bashed that guy up when this happened to you!" Lulu stated, clearly annoyed at her stepbrother.

"Fine, fine, fine." he managed to say, still giggling uncontrollably.

"Tidus, did you do that to her? Order someone to _'accidentally' _knock her tray into her?" Rikku asked, obviously angry for her cousin as she sarcastically spat the word 'accidentally'.

Tidus looked at her confused, then realization hit him once again, "Oh crap, don't tell me that she thought I did it?!" he said, looking slightly worried at what was going to happen to him considering how pissed off Yuna seemed before.

------------------------------

'Fine! If he thinks that this is really fun or **funny **then let me tell you, two can play your little game. Don't tell me that I didn't warn you Tidus.'

She thought to herself, still exceedingly infuriated. She looked at her surroundings and found herself standing in the school parking lot alone. Thinking as hard as possible about the prank she was going to pull just for Tidus, her feet gradually brought her closer to Tidus' yellow sports car.

She knew this car belonged to him when she coincidentally saw him walking towards it and unlocking it yesterday after the second incident.

A smirk was evident on her face as soon as an idea hit her.

'Guess it's time for you to buy yourself a new sports car Tidus.' 

------------------------------

The bell had just gone and the day was finally over. Yuna however did not show up for the last two last classes. Thankfully Rikku had bravely made up an excuse explaining that Yuna wasn't feeling well and therefore had to leave school early. However, if Yuna was to suddenly show up in class, Rikku knew she would be on the detention list in no time.

"I wonder where Yuna is." Lulu said, looking slightly concerned.

"I'm not sure, but I hope she's okay," Rikku replied, looking at both Tidus and Squall who were walking next to them with accusing eyes.

"Hey, I didn't do it, why are you looking at me like that?" Tidus said, arms up in the air in a surrendering gesture.

Rikku just giggled before walking off with Lulu.

------------------------------

"I think Yuna is real shit at you at the moment." Squall said as they walked into the parking lot.

"Real shit at me? What about you, you were laughing just as hard as I was. I think she's just as pissed with both of us." Tidus said, backing himself up.

Squall suddenly broke out into laughter, "Nope, I think she's more pissed at you man." he said, pointing at Tidus' car.

With a look of confusion, Tidus' eyes followed where Squall's finger was pointing at.

As soon as he saw his yellow car, well parts of yellow, his mouth fell opened. He sprinted towards his sports car and stared at it in disbelief. It had been severely scratched everywhere, although nothing was actually broken, the scratches had made up for it since it was so bad that you could barely tell it was a yellow car.

"WHAT THE FUCK! WHO DID THIS?!" he roared, looking at everyone who stared back at him with fearful eyes.

"I did, '_hope you like the way I decorated your car, it was done especially for you Tidus'_." Yuna mocked, walking up to the car park with her arms folded across her chest covered by a new top.

"Oh my God!" Tidus yelled in frustration, "I didn't fuckin pull those pranks on you, so get it through your thick head." he exclaimed, pointing furiously at his temples.

Yuna raised her eyebrows before shooting back at him, "Oh really, then tell me, who else besides you would huh?"

"I don't know, gees, I've only had this car for a week or two!" Tidus shouted.

"Whatever Tidus, whatever!" Yuna calmly said before walking off into the distance.

Tidus never once took his eyes off Yuna's back until she was fully out of sight, praying that he would be able to burn though her with his intent glaring. He turned back to his 'car', seeing at how ruined it was made him kick the side of his car in frustration. "Shit!"

------------------------------

A wide satisfied smirk had spread across her face as she watched the whole incident.

_Another point for me, and none for you Yuna. Hmm I think I'm in the lead. But don't worry, there's just one more thing I've got planned for you and I'm done._


	5. Unexpected

**_Chapter 5_**

**_Unexpected_**

**_-----------------------------------------_**

The day had ended, and amazingly there was not one single prank, not one single thing went wrong throughout the whole day for Yuna. Despite the fact that Tidus had been death glaring at her every time he saw her, she for the first time, considered today… a good day.

_'Hmm . . . I guess what I did to Tidus yesterday really did teach him a lesson.'_

"Come on Yunie, let's go!" Rikku hollered as she jumped into the drivers seat.

"We wanna be there ASAP so move that ass of yours." added Lulu, stepping into the front seat.

"Okay okay, and I thought I was the one obsessed with shopping." Yuna joked as she hurried up her paces towards the car.

With full speed, Rikku drove off into the distance leaving the blonde and brunette watching them go as they were taking their time walking to their own cars.

"Girls and shopping," Squall sighed out loud.

"Who cares." Tidus mumbled, "Lets just get to the gym at your house, I don't know how much longer I can hold in my anger."

Squall merely laughed, "Right, well I'll see you there." and with that, they both drove off in their own cars.

------------------------------

Four hours later

"Thank-God tonight's late night shopping, or else we would never be able to buy all the stuff we needed." Rikku squealed.

"I know! Gosh, it's been a while since I've bought so much." Yuna added, looking through her bags filled with either clothing or make-up.

"Well, it's eight already, so we should head back now." Lulu offered.

"Right!" Rikku and Yuna agreed in unison.

-------------------------------

"Hey, Derek's throwing a party at his house this weekend before camp. You gonna go?" Squall panted, lifting up the weights.

Tidus was about to answer but was instead interrupted by a loud burnout outside the mansion. The two guys quickly put on their t-shirts over their sweaty chests and exited the gym, making their way to the entrance of the house. Finally arriving at the large doorways, the blonde and brunette witnessed Rikku driving off leaving Yuna behind.

"Well isn't this nice, my stepbrother greeting me at the entrance." Lulu joked, handing some of her bags over to Squall to hold.

"Well, isn't this nice, my stepsister handing me her bags like I'm a servant." he joked back, taking some of the bags out of Lulu's hand.

"I hope you remembered to buy what I told you to buy." Squall said with a sly grin on his face causing Tidus to smirk himself.

"Oh shut up Squall." Lulu groaned, walking into the mansion at the same time slapping Squall's right arm.

"So Yuna, did you enjoy yourself at the mall today?" Squall asked looking at all the bags in Yuna's hands.

"If you must know, yes I did enjoy it." she replied, bearing a sweet smile on her face.

"Nice to know, well where's Rikku?"

"She's gone some place and said she needed to drive a few people somewhere, so she kicked me and all my stuff out." Yuna replied lifting her bags up as evidence.

"I see." Squall chuckled.

"Well anyway, I need to head back home now, so I'll see you guys tomorrow." Yuna said, making her way out.

"Wait Yuna!" Squall exclaimed, "Tidus, didn't you tell me you were about to leave?" Squall asked nudging Tidus in the ribs while he, on the other hand, was shooting his best death glare at Squall.

"No." was his simple reply.

"Yeah you did, now go drive Yuna home." Squall finished, pushing Tidus towards Yuna.

"No that's okay, I'd rather not, I'd rather walk." Yuna simply stated, again continuing to walk, and finally leaving.

"Well, I think I'll be leaving now." Tidus said aloud after Yuna was out of sight, making his way back to the gym to pack his equipment.

Squall and Lulu merely shook their heads before following him.

-------------------------------

It was already pretty dark with only the light posts as her sources of light. She felt nervous walking along the street alone but dismissed that thought to prevent herself from becoming paranoid. Suddenly, she heard, more like felt footsteps behind her. She quickened her pace hoping against hope that it was either Squall or Lulu following her. But to her disappointment, she only felt the footsteps follow her, not any familiar voices.

------------------------------

"Here, there she is, if you complete this job successfully, then you will get your full payment." Myleena whispered to two men.

They simply nodded with repulsive smirks on their faces and slowly made their way out of the bushes and began following Yuna. Myleena hid herself well behind a tree, smiling wickedly.

------------------------------

Not long later, after Yuna left, Tidus himself also left.

'Man this street's pretty deserted not to mention fricken dark' 

Tidus thought to himself.

All of a sudden, he noticed three figures walking on the footpath, one he recognized as Yuna, however the other two he did not know only that they were both male. He didn't have a good feeling about this, therefore decided to park his car on the side of the road, analyzing the two male following Yuna.

'Who cares, don't forget, she screwed your car up, what ever happens to her is her problem not yours.'

The more coldhearted side of his mind told him.

He was just about to leave, but luckily his better side took over. He mentally slapped himself for thinking like that.

'Tidus, you have got to be kidding me, how could you be such an asshole to even think that leaving was an option.'

Therefore, Tidus sat in his car, watching them. All of a sudden something happened that caused him to jump with his eyes wide opened.

-------------------------------

Yuna felt the footsteps behind her quicken as she herself quickened her pace. She was too afraid to turn around so she just kept walking, hoping with anything that they would stop following her. As she was reaching towards an alleyway she, without warning, felt two people from behind pushing her violently into the dark alleyway.

She stumbled a few steps but regained her posture as she noticed the two men slowly advancing on her. They had such revolting sly grins on their faces that it sent shivers running hastily up and down Yuna's spine. She began backing away from them even though she knew it was a dead end. Finally, she felt the cold hard wall press up against her back, realizing that there was no place to run. The smiles on the two men's' faces only grew wider as they continued walking slowly towards her. It was almost like they were doing this on purpose just to torture her mind for as long as they could. As scared as Yuna was, she still allowed her pride to take over.

"What the hell do you want?" she hissed at them even though she was almost certain she knew what exactly they wanted.

"Oh, we have ourselves a feisty one here." the man on the right replied, licking his lips as a sign of what he was intending to do to her.

"Hmm, I like feisty ones." the other added, "Okay, so here's what we're gonna do, I'm going to hold you back, while he takes your clothes off. Happy with my detailed explanation?" he said sarcastically, increasing his walking speed.

"Get the hell away from me," Yuna spat at them. But it was too late; the two men were already standing too close to her for her to run.

Suddenly, with a quick movement, one of them men grabbed Yuna's arms forcefully, and shoved her to the wall even more. She squinted at the pain when his fingers wrapped around her arms ever so tightly and the sudden jerk she experienced when he pushed her to the wall. She tried fighting back, but failed to do so under such strong grips. The men simply laughed at her, watching her fail on every attempt. Soon they got bored of all these mind-torturing games so they decided to make their move.

The way the men smiled made her positive that they were going to attack her now. So being as helpless as she was, she simply closed her eyes, not wanting to see their disgusting faces any longer. She was convinced that they were going to attack her any moment but a sudden movement surprised her. She suddenly felt the weight pressed against her taken off, and felt the deathly grip release abruptly from her arms. Her eyes shot open to see what was happening. What she saw caused her to stare in amazement.

_Tidus had come to the rescue_. He had violently pulled one of the men off of Yuna and slammed him against the wall making the man wince at the pain Tidus had caused him. Realizing that the man wasn't ready to fight back, Tidus took this opportunity and grabbed the other man by the collar and forcefully threw him onto his companion.

"Get the hell out of here before I change my mind and bash the shit out of you two."

Tidus warned, pointing his index finger at the both of them.

Without a second of hesitation, the two men clumsily got on their feet and ran as fast as they could. When they were finally out of sight, Tidus turned around and started picking up Yuna's shopping bags she had dropped before when she was backing against the wall. Without a word spoken, he began walking to his car with the bags in his hands and placed them in the backseats when he arrived there. Yuna on the other hand, stood there bewildered. She could not believe what just happened to her, and definitely couldn't believe that out of all people, Tidus was the one to save her.

Was she supposed to feel grateful towards him, the one she had always loathed to see ever since they met? Or was she supposed to simply forget about what he just did for her and continue hating him?

Suddenly a yell pulled her back to reality, "Hey, are you coming or not?"

It was Tidus. It had appeared that Yuna was standing there for quite some time deep in her thoughts, not realizing that she had kept Tidus waiting by the severely scratched car. Finally, when she was back into reality she slowly made her way across the road to Tidus' car, and sat in the front seat before Tidus drove off into the distance.

There was a long period of silence before Tidus asked, "You okay?"

Yuna simply nodded and looked out the window. She didn't like the fact that Tidus was the one to save her, and hated the fact that she was in the same car as he was.

However, if it weren't for him God knows what would've happened to her, so remembering her manners she managed to mumble, "Thank-you."

"You should be." Tidus replied stupidly. Sure Yuna was sort of grateful that Tidus had saved her, but the fact that he was going to be cocky about it made her remember why she hated him so much in the first place.

"You know, I have to admit, if it weren't for you those sickos would've succeeded in what they were planning to do, but that doesn't mean you can act like an asshole about it." She spat at him.

"I just saved you man, at least be grateful about it! Really, I should've just left you there and allow the guys to do whatever they were gonna do to you." He spat back, this time without thinking.

"That's it, pull over now!" Yuna ordered, disbelieving what she just heard come out of his mouth.

"Fine I will!" He replied, not wanting to be the loser right now.

After he pulled over to the side, she got out of the car and opened the doors to the back seats, quickly grabbing her bags before slamming the car door close. Instantaneously, Tidus drove off in full speed out of the street making loud burnouts, "Jerk." was all Yuna managed to say before hastily making her way home which was only a block away.

----------------------------------

An: Yuna Ungrateful Censored and Tidus Cocky Censored! Well this chapter was surely _weird, _and now you know who the prankster is! And as promised, I updated earlier than the previous chapter. So all smiles!

Thanks for all the positive reviews, although I was really disappointed that out of all the reviews regarding chapter four, I was unable to read 11 of them due to 'technical difficulties with fanfiction' meaning I have absolutely no idea who sent them, but thank you anyway!

SkyeLight


	6. Camp!

**_Chapter 6_**

**_Camp!_**

**_------------------------------------------_**

"Class, quiet please,"

This was the third time Miss Daniels had asked the whole class to quiet down, however, no one was able to hear her over the deafening conversations in the room. Reaching its limit, Miss Daniels wasn't going to ask anymore, "HEY!"

Suddenly, the whole class became quiet, all staring widely at her. Never had she actually screamed. It just wasn't her being the nice, calm and cool teacher she was.

"Thank-you." she smiled sweetly, her mood changing dramatically.

"Now, seeing that I've _finally_ gotten all your attention, I have something to announce." she exclaimed.

The whole class had leaned in closer without even realizing making Miss Daniels giggle slightly, "I think you guys would be pretty pleased with the news I have for you. Here, in my hand, on this sheet, are the groups and your separate destinations. I hope you guys will like the groups the teachers and I have arranged for you."

Giggles and excited whispers were heard from the girls in the class saying things like, 'Oh my gosh, I wonder if I'm gonna be in the same group with Tidus or Squall' or 'I hope I'm in the same group with either one of them, I'll truly be blessed if I were.' This caused Tidus and Squall to grin while Yuna rolled her eyes. It was almost becoming like a ritual, Tidus and Squall grinning, Yuna rolling her eyes. It just seems to repeat itself continuously.

'Can't the girls in this room get a grip or something?' 

After the first group was called out, there were a few moans and disappointed looks among the group. Mostly from the girls based on the fact that they weren't lucky enough to end up in either the blonde's or brunette's group.

"Okay, the second group," she started, adjusting her Guess glasses.

"Second group... Rikku, Wakka, Lulu, Squall, Tidus..."

Before Tidus' name was called out, Yuna was hoping she'd be in that group. However, after hearing his name she rapidly changed her mind, and was now praying that her name wasn't next.

"... and Yuna."

Every single girl in the room had showed a sign of disappointment one-way or another. Either moaning, glaring, or simply had their heads down. Yuna closed her eyes, also disappointed. It wasn't the disappointment the girls suffered, in fact quite the opposite. She was no longer looking forward to the camp anymore, just picturing herself spending two whole weeks with Tidus was enough to make her dread the days ahead of her.

------------------------------

After fifteen minutes since the bell to leave went, Yuna had not stopped complaining about the group selection; therefore Rikku had to think quickly to change subjects, "SO! What happened yesterday after I dropped you off at Lulu's place?"

Instantly Yuna tensed up from the memory of yesterday's unpleasant incident. Hiding her emotions, she quickly turned away, "N-nothing, nothing happened." she stuttered.

"Oh Okay!" Rikku chirped.

"Anyway, where were _you_?" Lulu asked, remembering the way she kicked them both out of the car.

"Oh that, well I received this phone call..." She started explaining, not noticing that Yuna and Lulu weren't really paying attention to her at all.

After realizing Rikku had finished Lulu and Yuna simply nodded, pretending to act satisfied with her explanation, they continued walking back to Yuna and Rikku's apartment preparing for the camping trip.

------------------------------

"If we're going for two weeks, what about your Blitzball practices?"

"Well basically it means that I'll just have to miss out on nine practices in total." Tidus mumbled, somewhat pleased and not pleased about it.

"Well, that's not entirely a bad thing you know. I mean, you _do_ spend heaps of your time on Blitzball." Squall pointed out.

The only response he received from Tidus was a sigh. A short silence fell among them as they continued walking.

"You know, my old man is seriously pissing the crap outta me these days. It's not like I want to spend majority of my time on Blitzball, I mean I do have a social life." Tidus suddenly blurted out, sounding deeply frustrated.

At a very young age, Tidus had already developed a liking towards Blitzball. Watching his dad being showered with praises to seeing him on TV persuaded Tidus to be just like his old man. Or so he thought. At the age of seven, Tidus had finally plucked up the courage to ask his dad to teach him, and by the mere age of nine, Jecht had started training Tidus unnaturally hard. As years went by, Jecht became more like a coach than a father to Tidus which reasoned to their distanced relationship. Yes, it was undeniable that Jecht's coaching had actually paid off, as Tidus was labeled 'Star player of Zanarkand Abes' but for that, in return Jecht had sacrificed his name as 'dad' to a simple 'Jecht' to Tidus.

After being named 'Star player', along came huge fame and of course, to Tidus' likings, girls. This boosted Tidus' ego incredibly, and not long later, it became obvious. That however, did not change his reputation dramatically; he was still the sexy, hot Star player and girls were still falling head over heals for him. The only thing that changed with his reputation was that next to his label, another word was added. Cocky.

Girls thought of him as an 'Idol' or even a fantasized boyfriend, while some guys thought of him as a rather big headed jerk. Neither one trying to look deeper, or tried to really know what Tidus was about. Had the girls had a chance, they would simply jump into his pants without question and not even bother caring to know exactly who he is, just that his '_The_ Tidus'. Little did everyone know the insecurity and immense pressure that weighed upon him. The expectations everyone had of him to follow directly in Jecht's footsteps was a burden to him. He was living in Jecht's shadow.

"He's just pushing and pushing, 'Tidus you need more practice to be a pro' 'Tidus I know you can do better'," He mocked, "It's almost like his preparing me for something that I don't know about. But Blitzball season isn't until for another seven months." finishing with a deep growl.

"Well look on the bright side, you're gonna be spending not only two weeks away from your 'old man', but you're also spending two weeks with Yuna." Squall tried to remain optimistic about this camp.

Tidus, however, merely gave a semi-bitter laugh, "That's just great." his voice filled with sarcasm.

Squall smirked.

------------------------------

Monday

Everyone was waiting impatiently for their mini van to arrive while they stood on the large yard, now looking rather small with around 250 people gathered together. Every group was made to stand together so that the process of getting into their transport and leaving would decrease the hassle. One by one, a mini van would be driven into the parking lot, and then either a man or woman would step out of the van and call out a group number. That particular group would then have to get onto the van and someone among that group would have to drive. The process was simple and brain free yet the whole procedure was taking forever.

Wakka's group was simply standing there, waiting patiently for their number to be literally screamed out. All of them were quiet besides Tidus and Squall. They had their heads turned the other direction as if discussing something confidential, but truth be told, they were simply talking about how many hot chicks they were going to score with at the camp. Note the phrase '_they were going to_' instead of '**_if _**_they were going to'._

After a long while, their group number was finally called out, however, to the slowness of this procedure, they were still one of the lucky ones to be called out so early, therefore, they had to push their way through groups of people before getting into the parking lot.

"Cool!" Rikku squealed, noticing the mini van at once.

The squeal was high pitched and loud causing Squall, who was standing right next to her, to turn his head abruptly to look at the culprit of the noise. When he looked down at her, he couldn't help but smile, realizing that the squeal had reasoned to her blushing. She blushed even more when she felt Squall's eyes on her face and quickly hid it by covering it with her hands and running into the van.

Now this made Squall laugh.

"Okay, so who's gonna be the driver?" Tidus asked, looking at Wakka and Squall.

"I will, I don't trust you guys man." Wakka joked, slapping Tidus and Squall's shoulders.

"Okay, well I'm gonna sit in the front seat." Lulu declared, blushing slightly after hearing Rikku wolf whistle at her.

Wakka simply rubbed his neck and nervously laughed, "Yeah cool." feeling happy that the one he's had a crush on for so long was showing signs of liking towards him.

"Kay, whatever guys, let's just get on and leave already," Squall said, looking rather impatient.

------------------------------

"So do you have any idea where we're headed Wakka?" Squall asked loudly just to have his voice heard over the two girls sitting in front of him and Tidus.

"Yeah I think so, think we're headed to a cabin close to a beach." Wakka replied.

"A beach!" Rikku exclaimed, jumping slightly, "I love beaches. Remember that time when Johnnie's board shorts fell off when he fell off his surfboard Yunie? Man that was so funny,"

"Oh my gosh, that was the funniest. He was blushing so hard, I seriously thought he was going to explode." Yuna added, both clutching onto their sides from laughing.

"Rightttt," Wakka, Lulu and Squall all said in unison, while they continued laughing.

Two hours later

"Okay! We're there people!" Wakka yelled in excitement.

The six of them stepped out of the van and found themselves looking over a beautiful beach, with soft golden sand and the hot sun shining down on the water making it glisten and sparkle. There were palm trees on the side of the pathway making it look tropical and cool. It appeared that other people the same age from other schools had also come here as their camping trip when the group realized the stack of cabins across the road from the beach and a heap of teenagers everywhere.

"Oh my gosh, this place is so pretty." Rikku shrieked, jumping around whilst everyone else was unloading their luggage out of the van.

"I know, and check out the hot babes on the beach." Tidus added with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Tidus man, isn't there anything else you think of besides chicks." Squall joked.

"Hey, speak for yourself 'cause you're probably thinking the same shit." Tidus called out from the van while trying to pull three suitcases out at the same time.

Squall merely smirked before walking over to give Tidus a hand.

As soon as they walked up to their cabin door, there was a note stuck to it saying:

_Hello students,_

_Sorry but all cabins here have no kitchens therefore breakfast lunch and dinner's are all served for you if you order them via phones. However, you are always welcome to go out to other places to eat if you wish. _

After reading the note, Tidus ripped it off the door, scrunched it up and chucked it on the ground like it was the most useless piece of information ever. Once the posse walked in, they noticed that it was a fairly big cabin with three rooms, three bathrooms (two en suites and one bathroom) and a lounge. Sure it wasn't a five star hotel look alike place, hell it wasn't even a two star look alike place, but all in all, it was livable. The whole group separately walked off checking out the cabin before considering unpacking. Suddenly Lulu noticed that every room only had one bunk bed.

"Hey guys, the rooms only have one bunk bed!" she pointed out.

"Yeah, what's the problem with that?" Squall asked, clueless of why she brought that up.

"Well, _idiot_, that means that in one room one of us will have to share the bunk bed with a one of you guys, get it?" she sarcastically added, pointing at the boys as if they were diseased.

Squall simply rolled his eyes after her comment, still not understanding why she made such a big deal out of it.

"Simple, you and Wakka can share the room sis," Squall said back, smiling evilly before receiving a blow at his rib cage.

"No seriously, who's gonna share the room?" Yuna said looking at everyone.

"Any volunteers?" Lulu added, "And don't you dare start Squall," pointing a warning finger at him.

"Fine, last one to get into a room will have to share it." Tidus yelled before making a mad dash into one of the rooms.

After hearing this, everyone else had run into a room, all except for two. Squall was still standing there looking confused and still holding onto his ribcage, while Rikku was too busy jumping around to hear what Tidus said.

Squall turned around to Rikku and said, "Guess it's me and you tonight."

"Um actually Squall, I forgot to point out, that the last ones in will have to share the room for the week." Tidus managed to say through his laughter.

First Squall glared at him, but then simply shrugged his shoulders, "Fine with me." he said before turning himself towards Rikku once again, "Shall we?" he joked, extending his arm out to the direction of their room making her blush madly whilst everyone else was laughing their heads off.

A while later, Lulu had left the room to unpack some of her other gear into the bathroom, leaving Yuna alone to unpack her things. She was kneeling on the soft carpet with her back facing the door, slowly placing her clothes on the bottom bunk.

"Hmm, you have quite a lot of clothes even for a chick." a voice interrupted her from behind.

She turned around to see Tidus leaning on the doorframe with his arms folded across his firm chest. She simply turned her head back around and continued what she was doing almost acting as though he wasn't there. With her back facing Tidus, she did not see the smirk growing on his face, fortunately for him.

"Well anyway, we're gonna go down to the beach in two hours so be prepared for that."

"Okay, but why two hours later?" she said again turning around to face Tidus.

"Beats me." was his final reply before he pushed himself off the doorframe and left.

Yuna simply shrugged to herself and continued unpacking.

After finishing what she was doing along with some other things, she found herself extremely exhausted from the lack of sleep she had the night before this camp. So keeping in mind that she still had an hour to kill before they were off to the beach, she decided to take a nap.

------------------------------

"Hey guys ready?" cried Rikku, holding a towel in one hand and a beach volleyball in the other.

"Um, Rikku, I think Yuna's still sleeping, reckon we should leave her a note before going first?" Wakka insisted.

"Yeah that would probably be good, just tell her that we're at the beach and bring her own towel and stuff, we've got all the food and things." Lulu ordered, while slowly making her way out the door with the others followed close behind, forcing Wakka to write the note.

------------------------------

A loud slam of the door caused Yuna to stir and gradually wake up. She yawned and stretched before looking over at the clock which read 1.00 pm. She groggily made her way out of the room when she noticed a little note for her on the door.

"Oh crap! They've already gone, just great." she mumbled to herself, rushing off into the room to get herself changed into her beach clothes.

"Thanks for telling me you guys." she muttered to no one in particular.

------------------------------

"Man, there are heaps of chicks here, and did you notice that hot blonde checking me out?! Damn come on, I know I'm hot and all, but does she have to make it that obvious." Tidus boasted with a huge smile on his face showing them that he was also kidding.

Squall and Wakka simply sighed, use to all the compliments he treated himself.

The guys were just sitting there on the beach watching Lulu and Rikku trying to master surfing using their surfboards, but failing miserably. Rikku and Lulu both had a bikini on and a pair of board shorts, which looked extremely sexy on them both according to Wakka, Squall and Tidus' opinions. The three of them smirked as they again saw Rikku fall off the board hitting hard onto the water.

"Yo, your sis is like hot ya." Wakka pointed out to Squall.

"Oh Hyne Wakka! She's my sister bro, can you not say shit like that to me again!" Squall said with a screwed up expression on his face, causing Wakka to laugh.

"Hmm wonder what Yuna's gonna wear." Tidus accidentally said out loud.

"Woah man, and why do you care?" Squall asked smirking with one eyebrow raised up.

"Nothing, just wondering, betcha she's gonna show up in like a gay one piece swimsuit anyway." Tidus quickly replied.

Squall had looked over to another direction which had funnily caused him to smile widely, "Well be prepared to stand corrected," he said, eyeing Tidus towards the thing he was looking at.

Tidus reluctantly turned his head backwards to face the 'thing' Squall was looking at.

However what he saw next made his jaw drop, eyes wide opened. There was Yuna, walking alone towards their direction in a dark blue triangular bikini top covered by a thin white singlet with a short orange sarong wrapped around her thin waist covering her thighs. She had brown rectangular sun glasses raised up to the top of her head with her hair tied back leaving a few strands to fall beside her face. She came walking down normally with her white sandals not noticing Tidus' eyes scanning every part of her.

"Hey, thanks for waiting," she sarcastically said, before releasing her towel next to Tidus. However, Tidus remained silently sitting there still not taking his gaze off of her, which had finally come to her attention.

"Is there something… wrong?" she asked, pointing out that Tidus was staring at her.

Finally Tidus snapped out of his trance after hearing Yuna.

"Nah, he's just checking you out," Squall said matter-of-factly.

"What?" Yuna asked, not exactly paying her full attention to them. Squall and Wakka simply smirked.

"Okay... Anyway, where's Lulu and Rikku?" she asked, looking around.

---------------------------------

An: Hello! Thanks a bunch for the kind reviews reviewers, and the emails e-mailers!

Well at least in this chapter Tidus and Yuna didn't bite at each other, well sorta.

SkyeLight


	7. Beach and a Movie

**_Chapter 7_**

**_Beach and a Movie_**

**_-------------------------------------------_**

"Okay... Anyway, where's Lulu and Rikku?"

"They're just, um, trying to... I think surf?!" Tidus said, adding a screwed up expression to the last three words. Turning her head towards their direction, Yuna laughed when she caught a glimpse of Lulu and Rikku both falling off of Squall and Tidus' surfboards.

"Hyne they are pathetic." Squall pointed out.

"I know ya?" added Wakka with his eyes glued on Lulu.

"Hey," Tidus said with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "Why don't we show those girls what surfing really is?" he offered.

After seeing them all smile, Tidus took that as their response as he got up and started running in the water with Squall and Wakka following behind. Yuna laughed whole heartedly when she saw the expressions on the girls' faces after getting kicked off by the guys. Not bothering to put up a fight with them, they jogged over to Yuna as soon as they noticed Yuna sitting there alone.

"Hey, you're finally here"

"Yeah." Yuna replied.

"So what did you think of our surfing?" Lulu asked with a hint of humor in her voice.

Yuna was about to answer through her giggling but was interrupted by Rikku, "Not as good as them." she said pointing over to the water.

The three girls all stared at the three guys professionally hitting the waves and gliding through the water on their surfboards like actual pros. Becoming aware that Yuna was looking his way, Tidus decided to do some something to impress her. So he bravely bent down slightly with his right hand grabbing one side of the board and did a huge flip when a wave came. To his amazement, he had actually mastered that just then without any faults. Feeling even more proud of himself than usual, he let his guard down thinking that he was '_unstoppable', _but never did he see what was coming his way.

Catching him off guard, another huge wave came, however this time splashing over him and pushing him off the surfboard. He jumped up from the water gasping for air while at the same time hearing Squall and Wakka laugh at him. They had jumped off their surfboards to see if he was okay, but instead, they were only able to laugh at the sight.

"Ha ha, very funny." Tidus spoke sarcastically.

"Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious." Squall mocked.

"Who cares, let's just head back to the girls." Wakka offered, pulling his surfboard along with him as he was the first to arrive on shore.

"I must say Tidus, lovely flip, and an even lovelier fall." Rikku commented while giggling.

"Hey! I'm hungry, got any food?" Wakka interrupted trying to change the boring subject.

Lulu nodded and handed him a sandwich and a can of coke. With that, everyone else started eating, all except Yuna. Because she had just arrived, unlike everyone else, she wasn't tired or hungry, yet more bored and energetic. Therefore keeping in mind that there were three available surfboards, she decided to hit the waves by herself.

"Hey, can I borrow one of your surfboards?" she asked, looking at the three guys digging food into their mouths. With a whole heap of chewed up sandwich in his mouth, Tidus managed to say, "Yeah, you can use mine."

Yuna winced at the sight before saying, "Thanks,"

She quickly grabbed the surfboard as the whole grouped watched her intently and made her way in the water. Clueless of what she was planning to do, the group simply sat there and waited for her next move. She placed the board on the water and swiftly climbed onto it with her belly pressed onto the center of the surfboard. Pushing her way further into the ocean, she steadily lifted herself off the surfboard and placed her two feet on it in a surfing position. She then started gliding along the waves unaware that the whole group had watched her with their jaws ajar.

"No one told me she knew how to surf." Squall broke the silence but remained watching her surf.

"Boy, I've known Yunie the longest and I never knew." Rikku added with a huge amount of awe in her voice.

While everyone was giving in their inputs, Tidus just sat their quiet, never once taking his eyes off her.

_'Impressive.'_

After a while, Yuna had retired from the waves and made her way back to the group only to be showered with praises and compliments from Lulu and Rikku. She simply laughed and sat back down in-between Lulu and Tidus.

"So, we've only been out here for like an hour and half, what else are we gonna do?" Rikku asked fidgeting with her towel.

"Hmm, well seeing that we have a beach volley ball here, do you guys want to play a game of well… Beach Volley Ball? Girls against guys." Lulu suggested.

The group exchanged looks before agreeing to her idea.

"Fine, us guys, against you chicks! Oh and don't worry, we'll be soft on yous." Tidus teased looking straight at Yuna.

"Yeah whatever, we'll prove you guys wrong." Yuna retorted back at Tidus.

While they were arguing, it didn't even occur to them that the rest of the group had already finished setting up the net, so they slowly made their way to the sides they were on and positioned themselves on the sand.

"Alright, we're starting seeing that we're chicks." Rikku exclaimed causing the three guys to roll their eyes at the lame excuse.

With a hard and low serve, the girls had easily gained the first point while the guys all looked at one another with expressions like, 'I thought you were gonna get it'

The game continued always in a tied situation when the guys would lose points for not concentrating, if you know what I mean. However, they were always able to catch up effortlessly.

After a long fun game, eventually the girls had won the guys, making them appear as sore losers when they started making up excuses or whined. It was around five something by the time they finished, therefore, without anything else to do, they decided to just sit there and wait for the sun to set. Luckily, they still had a whole heap of junk food with them, so they started nibbling on jellybeans or any chewy things.

A long interesting conversation about basically everything had gone on for two whole hours without anyone of them realizing. Funny thing was, when the topic about relationships was raised Yuna seemed to have kept a lot of her input to herself, but no one really noticed that, much to her relief.

The sun was finally setting when it reached 7.30 and the group just sat there and watched it set silently. The crimson sun slowly made it's way down, announcing the end of the first day of their camp. At last when the whole sun was out of sight, the group, excluding Wakka and Lulu, started packing their belongings and began walking back across the road where their cabins were.

Rikku and Yuna were up ahead of Squall and Tidus, while Wakka and Lulu decided to stay for a little while longer. As the two girls walked slowly towards the cabin, the two guys following three meters behind them were lost in their own thoughts.

_I'm hungry. Hyne look at that ass of hers. _

Squall thought silently to himself, the last seven words making him smirk.

Why do we have to carry everything? 

Tidus thought to himself whilst looking at Yuna from behind.

------------------------------

"HEY GUYS! DINNER'S HERE!" Wakka shouted over the loud pumping music as he clumsily walked into the cabin with paper bags filled with different food orders. Suddenly everyone turned their heads and ran straight over to Wakka.

"Hey hey hey, calm down ya?"

As soon as the whole group got their bags of food, they gathered together in the lounge room and started eating their dinner.

"Hey! Anything planned for tonight?" Wakka asked with his mouth filled with chewed up food.

"Umm, nope, not until tomorrow." Lulu replied.

"Oh what! What the hell are we suppose to do for the whole of tonight then?" whined Tidus at the same time stuffing his food down his throat and chugging down his beer.

"Hey, I got an idea! Let's play Truth or dare." Rikku suggested however only getting moans or unsure expressions from the group.

"Nah, I suggest that one of us goes and rent a movie at the video shop down the road." Wakka recommended.

"But what movie are we gonna watch? Horror, Action, romance or comedy?"

Different choices were randomly called out, making it harder to choose the film. Therefore Lulu, being the wisest one from the group, drew the attention back to her by screaming, "Hey! What about this, the person who can skull down this can of alcohol gets to choose the film. And since you guys are mostly going for an action film, then you pick out one guy whilst we pick out one girl."

Getting nods from everyone, Lulu grabbed two bottles and filled them with alcohol while the group was talking amongst themselves.

"Okay, here." she said as she threw a bottle of alcohol over to the guys and a not- see-through bottle over to Yuna

After getting ready, Lulu began counting down, "Okay, Squall, Yuna, ready?" she asked looking at both of them when she said their names.

They simply nodded their heads as they were getting ready to drink like hell.

"Okay, ready set GO!"

And with that, Yuna and Squall began drinking their bottles of liquids as fast as possible. Taking a glance over at Squall, Yuna noticed how fast he was; therefore she desperately tried to quicken her speed by allowing the 'alcohol' flood in her mouth and opening her throat wider than it already was.

Slamming the bottle down with force, the girls cheered as Yuna wiped her lips from the remaining liquid. Squall on the other hand had just finished milliseconds after Yuna. The guys were all amazed that a chick had actually beaten them, "Damn Yuna, I didn't know you were an alcoholic," Wakka stated before getting a grin from Yuna.

"Okay, we win, so we choose a romantic comedy." Rikku piped up.

The guys merely groaned and shook their heads.

"Fine fine fine! Go Wakka." Tidus ordered.

"What?! Why do I have to go again?" he protested.

"Oh come on, it's a chance for '_you know who'_ and you to have some time together by yourselves." Tidus replied.

Wakka simply smirked and gave up to Tidus, making his way out the door with his hand grabbing onto Lulu's hand. Once the door was closed, Tidus and Squall turned back around to the two girls.

"God Yuna, how the hell did you manage to drink a bottle of alcohol so damn fast." Squall stated with astonishment.

Rikku and Yuna looked over at each other and started laughing. Somehow, the guys knew that there was some sort of catch to it.

"Wanna know my secret?" Yuna asked.

"Go on." Tidus urged.

"Well, the secret is… my bottle was actually filled with water." She answered, again starting to laugh loudly at the two stunned faces in front of her.

"Why else would Lulu have poured the alcohol in a different bottle and mine being not-see-through." Yuna chuckled.

"What!? That's not fair, now we're stuck watching a stupid romance." Tidus and Squall complained as Yuna and Rikku rolled on the carpet still laughing hard that tears were starting to roll off their cheeks. Tidus and Squall simply smirked.

Man, who would believe that she is such an annoying chick with that face.

Tidus thought silently to himself, although he still didn't realize the smile was not yet wiped off.

Phew! For a minute there I thought I lost to a chick 

------------------------------------

The group had all settled down and began watching the romantic comedy Wakka and Lulu had chosen. Luckily for them, they had a couch all to themselves when no one wanted to sit close to them after seeing them occasionally exchange kisses on the cheek or neck. But it was bound to happen if a chick was sitting on a guys lap during a romantic movie.

Therefore, with them taking up one whole couch, the rest of the group were squashed together on the remaining couch. Tidus on the left edge, then Rikku, then Yuna and then Squall. The reason why the guys were on the edge was basically because being guys, they always had their legs stretched wide opened.

Half way during the movie, Tidus started to get restless. So looking down at his big bowl of popcorn which was suppose to be shared amongst him and Rikku, he grabbed a handful of them before handing the bowl over to the blonde next to him.

He secretly glanced over at Yuna who was sharing her bowl of popcorn with Squall, and smiled seeing her so hooked on the movie. He slowly grabbed one popcorn and chucked it at Yuna, catching her off guard.

Feeling something light hit her, she turned her head around to see what it was. Unsurprisingly, it was a popcorn. She looked over at the direction it came from and suspiciously scanned Tidus and Rikku. Although she was pretty sure it was Tidus, she wasn't positive it was him seeing that Rikku had the bowl of popcorn and he seemed so utterly innocent just sitting there watching the movie. So not bothering where the popcorn came from she turned her attention back to the movie.

Tidus grinned as he felt her eyes leave him, not knowing that it was he who chucked it at her. He had to obtain his laughter inside so that he could continue playing this game with her or on her without her realizing it. Taking another popcorn, he chucked it at her. Again she turned around to find another popcorn, this time she looked at Tidus more carefully and noticed a very small smirk on his face. Smiling herself, she grabbed a handful of popcorn and chucked it at Tidus causing him to jump off the couch.

"Woah man, geez I only chucked two at you." Tidus said trying to dust all the popcorn off of him.

Yuna simply laughed before continuing to watch the movie. Tidus sat back down and also started actually watching the movie instead of always looking over at Yuna. Tidus would again occasionally get restless and start chucking popcorns at Yuna only to be greeted the same way afterwards until they both ran out of popcorns. Not long later, after the movie finished everyone retired to their bedrooms and went to sleep, getting as much rest as possible for tomorrow's trip.

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An: I'm sorry, this chapter was really rushed so the quality is down right crap! Anyway, please review, your comments mean a lot to me.

Just a quick thanks to the constant reviews from reviewers! Doesn't bother me that they're short, just the fact that they're there!!!!

SkyeLight

(If you were wondering, yes, I did change my pen-name. Formerly known as Sassie Girl)


	8. Tidus' new Foe

**_Chapter 8_**

**_Tidus' new Foe_**

**_--------------------------------------_**

"ICE-SKATING!?" the three men cried in unison.

"Ah ah, no complaining. I've already booked it so as soon as we arrive there we have the whole place to ourselves." Lulu announced with both of her hands placed firmly on her hips.

"God, whatever." Squall mumbled, running his hand through his hair. The simple gesture caught Rikku's attention and immediately she started to blush. Upon feeling the burning heat on her cheeks, she abruptly turned around, hoping in vain to hide her rosy cheeks. Being the observant person that he was, without delay, he noticed that the petite blonde standing in front of him had found his before-action in a way _'sexy.'_

"Okay, we're leaving in fifteen minutes. So you all better be in the van by then!" Lulu yelled out to all her companions, as one by one they began heading back to their assigned rooms, preparing for their trip.

Rikku, still embarrassed with what happened moments ago, reluctantly made her way into the room. Afraid that her cheeks may still be slightly pinkish, she kept her head down as soon as she got into the room. She kicked herself mentally as she realized that it was probably more obvious by keeping her head down than the other option, acting as though nothing had happened.

Standing there like an idiot, Rikku finally decided that the latter was the better option; therefore she took a deep breath and lifted her head up. She didn't know whether to thank God for this moment or slap herself silly for embarrassing herself even more, but basically she knew she was most likely going to faint. Squall stood there shirtless looking at Rikku with an amused expression. However, after a while he decided quickly to slip on his white T-shirt as the atmosphere was starting to get a little awkward with Rikku staring intently as his chest.

Finally snapping out of her trance-like state, she blushed harder than ever, "S-sorry, I didn't know you were changing," she stuttered, her cheeks crimson red, her eyes downcast and her heart beating furiously.

"Nah, it's cool, umm, maybe you should get changed soon, we both know Lulu ain't the most patient person here." Squall joked trying to ease the tension a bit.

Smiling and nodding at the same time, Rikku hurriedly walked into the en-suite, grabbing her belongings on her way.

_I'm such a stud. _

------------------------------

"It's cold in here." Rikku pointed out as soon as she walked in.

"No Rikku, it's hot in here," Lulu replied, sarcasm heavily detected in her voice.

Yuna simply laughed and placed her skates on, eager to get on the ice. She managed to put them on with ease while Rikku struggled to fit her foot in. The guys on the other hand were already ahead of them and were by now racing each other on ice. Judging by their reaction before, one would not believe how skillfully talented they were.

Finally, after helping Rikku with her skates, the three girls were able to make their way over to the ice. Carefully yet expertly, the three of them started gliding on the ice. The men stood there in silence for a while just watching the girls ice skate.

"What are you guys doing? Why aren't you skating?" Lulu asked.

Tidus and Squall simply dismissed Lulu by waving their hands or shrugging their shoulders.

Not long later, after no one had spoken to each other since they were all occupied with their own skating, Squall grew sick pf the silence. He skated at a fast speed and abruptly stopped, digging up the ice on the floor. He bent down and picked it up molding it into a ball, he looked around at everyone and finally decided whom he was to aim for. Yuna, unluckily, was standing at a perfect distance from Squall for him to be able to get her, therefore without realizing Squall had already taken aim, she merely stood there.

Suddenly, she felt something cold, hard and wet hit her. She turned around immediately to see what had struck her and saw Squall once again pissing himself laughing. She slowly dusted the ice off her and dug up some of her own ice and molded it in a circular shape. Not being as accurate as they both thought she would be, she missed, causing Squall to continue his laughing. With an evil glint and a mischievous smirk, she began skating at a rapid speed towards Squall.

He noticed straight away once she started charging towards him and fled as quickly as possible. Yuna chased him around countless times not willing to give up, until suddenly, she felt slightly dizzy after all those rounds. She did not stop however; instead she merely slowed down her speed, but this still could not keep herself balanced. So, trying to push the dizziness aside, she closed her eyes hoping that the heaviness of her head would soon disappear. But once her eyes were squeezed shut, she gradually felt herself falling and yet she was too dizzy to react to it.

Just as she thought she was going to hit the cold hard floor, she suddenly felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist and back. It took a while before she finally regained her consciousness. Once she did she slowly opened her eyes to find that it was Tidus' arms that were around her. What she did next surprised them both…she merely stared at him. Her mind told her to push him away, but something inside of her refused to follow her orders. Tidus on the other hand, was surprised that he didn't get the push away he was expecting, not that he really minded being so close to her.

They just stood there for who knows how long looking at each other, studying their facial features, analyzing every single flaw on their faces and trying to read each other's minds. Yuna had to admit, he was a jerk at times but overall he was indeed exceedingly good looking. Eventually her mind was able to gain back control, so with her instincts kicking in, she quickly yet gently released herself from his grip.

"Thanks." she softly mumbled so that only he could hear it.

"No problem." he managed to reply back, backing away from her slightly.

The whole group had been standing there watching the whole thing happen but decided to remain quiet knowing that they could only make the situation more awkward for them.

"Hey we have to go now, I only booked this place for an hour guys." Lulu said, breaking the silence.

Receiving nods as the groups' replies, they made their way out, taking off their skates before they arrived to the counter to return them.

The silence had melted away and everyone once again started their own conversations as they walked into the parking lot. Yuna, however, chose to remain silent, mentally punishing herself for thinking what she thought about Tidus before.

With her mind occupied, she didn't notice someone ahead of her hence making her bump into that person.

"Oh sorry." she stammered, but kept her eyes fixed on the ground.

"Yuna?" the male voice spoke.

At this point, the group had turned around to see what was happening. Yuna shot her head up immediately to the sound of _that _voice. As soon as she was looking at the black haired, good-looking man in front of her she couldn't help but glare at him. She knew her cheeks were going red but she didn't bother hiding them, simply because she just didn't give a crap. Her heart starting beating at a rapid speed, she could feel it, yet again, she didn't try to stop it, because she couldn't.

She seemed okay with the flushed cheeks, but her eyes proved to differ. Her cheeks were reddened as anger took over her. Her heart increased its speed as rage overcame her. And her eyes couldn't help but squint at the sight in front of her.

"Justin…" Rikku mumbled.

Without one word spoken, Yuna stormed off towards their van, forcefully flinging off his hand when he tried to prevent her from leaving. The group all stood there speechless with Yuna's sudden change of mood. Ignoring the man supposedly known as 'Justin' to Rikku, they hurriedly walked after Yuna. As soon as they arrived to their van, Yuna was already sitting right at the back corner where Squall was sitting before, looking out the window.

"Yu-," Lulu started but was stopped when she realized Rikku had raised her hand and gave a disapproving look.

Therefore the group silently stepped into the van and drove off back to their cabin. The group had quietly chatted amongst themselves while Rikku, with all her effort, tried to start a conversation with Yuna but only receiving nods occasionally. Never once did Yuna take her eyes off the blurry clouds outside.

Once they arrived back, everyone got off the van and waited for Lulu to unlock the door to their cabin. Tidus continuously glanced at Yuna, but never saw her face for she was always either looking in another direction or just staring at her feet. Once they walked inside, Yuna calmly yet hurriedly walked into her room, grabbing a pile of clothing before making her way into the bathroom. She closed the door behind her and locked it. She looked at herself in the mirror and to her surprise, her eyes weren't blood shot nor were there any signs of her crying. Wait! That's because she didn't cry. Sure her eyes were blurry a few times, but it was only caused by the rage inside of her.

Why hadn't I cried today, just the way I cried in the past because of him? Have I already forgotten about him?

------------------------------

Right after they heard the water pouring down inside, everyone showered Rikku with questions.

"What the hell happened before?"

"Who was that guy?"

"How do you know him?"

"WAIT!" Rikku exclaimed shutting everyone up.

"I'll tell you everything I know, just keep your voices down. Don't wanna let Yunie hear us do we now?"

The group merely shook their heads and paid full attention to the petite blond in front of them.

"That jerk before was Justin…Yuna's ex boyfriend," Rikku sighed, pausing for a while.

Immediately Tidus had already formed a disliking towards him, unknown to himself.

"They were inseparable back at Besaid high. He was a perfect boyfriend towards Yuna. He also got along with all her friends…especially Teresa… one of Yuna's closest friend. Well one day… one day Yuna wanted to give him a surprise at his apartment because she had come back two days earlier from camp. But as soon as she walked into his bedroom, she saw him cheating on her… with Teresa." Rikku finished and sighed out loud.

The grouped all had their eyes wide opened, not believing how much of a jerk that Justin guy was.

"The weird thing was, no one and I mean no one ever saw Yuna cry afterwards. I don't know, maybe she thought the situation was real clichéd or something. Or maybe she never really liked him, I don't know." Rikku laughed nervously, trying to break the tension.

Tidus felt the hatred towards this guy growing every second inside of him. Suddenly the running of the water stopped, indicating that Yuna was going to come out soon. Therefore Rikku quickly ended that conversation and changed the topic.

------------------------------

Yuna cautiously stepped out of the shower before grabbing her towel and wrapping it around herself. She stared back at the reflection in the mirror and started analyzing herself. After seeing Justin, she was reminded about too many of the bad things that happened to her. This made her feel self conscious. She continuously asked herself, '_Was I not enough?' _A while later after staring at herself for a rather long time, she decided to put her clothes on as she felt a shiver run down her spine.

Walking out of the bathroom, she noticed that everyone had also changed into the 'not going out clothes'. As for her, she was simply wearing her baggy pants and tank top.

"Yuna, are you going somewhere?" Rikku asked.

"Um, yeah, I'm just going to the beach," Yuna answered, looking straight at Rikku with an obvious fake smile.

"But it's already dark, why don't you just stay in here. We can have a drinking competition again since you're such a pro." offered Wakka

"It was water Wakka-," "WHAT!"

"Yuna, just make sure we'll be able to find you when dinner's here okay?" Lulu continued after being rudely interrupted by Wakka.

With a nod, Yuna made her way out of the cabin brushing past a slightly worried Tidus on her way.

------------------------------

"IT WAS WATER?!"

"Shut up Wakka, we all already knew that. Anyway Rikku, how did you and Yuna end up coming to Zanarkand high, I mean no offense or anything, but Zanarkand high is sorta like a rich school." Squall asked.

Rikku placed her hands on her hips and faked an offended look, "Squall, how insulting!"

"NO! I didn't mean it that way, what I mea-," but he was interrupted by Rikku's laughter.

"I'm only kidding, don't worry." she giggled.

Squall, relieved that she didn't take his comment to heart, urged her to continue by waving his hands as a sign of 'go on'.

"Well firstly we got kicked out of Besaid high-," she earned a chorus of gasps or 'what?' after hearing her say that.

"No, I haven't finished," she declared before getting shouted in the face to continue.

"Okay okay, word was spread quickly throughout the school after the incident meaning it came to Yuna's friends' attention. They felt bad for Yuna so they decided that it was payback time. Yuna and I had nothing to do with it though, well Yuna didn't even know that it was even happening, but I did. The only reason why I didn't stop them was because I also felt bad for Yuna, and I, just as much as everyone else, wanted to even the score for her, but I knew Yuna didn't like people butting into her business, so I stayed out of it."

After getting a few nods, Rikku continued.

"It started off to be little things such as ruining their lockers, or spreading false rumors or just anything humiliating. But then, they took it further, they needed to do something that would also hurt them as much as they hurt Yuna, so one of them, her name was Courtney, decided to play a real mean trick on them. Well long story short, basically she set him up by getting him all drunk and pretending to sleep with him. This was all caught on camera. Of course, she didn't actually sleep with him; the video ended just enough to imply that it happened." Rikku paused, taking a deep breath before starting again.

"So they showed the tape to Teresa and of course she broke down in tears, well actually she broke down. The principals eventually heard about the 'little games' they were playing, so not knowing where the orders came from, he was planning to expel the entire group. Yuna, who was completely innocent about it all, stood up and lied that it all came from her and that she had told them to do it. Yuna sort of felt that it was her fault so she took the blame not holding a grudge on anyone of them because she knew they did it for her. But I think deep down inside Yuna wanted to leave anyway."

"Of course I wasn't going to let Yuna get all the blame for it, so I stood up as well and said that I was apart of it. So yeah, I also got expelled as well. How we got to Zanarkand high? Let's just put it this way, Yuna is not a poor girl, in fact she's slightly above average, money wise, but because of some umm, problems she chose to leave home. And that's why we share an apartment together. But still, we had to work our asses off to pay for the rent _and_ the school fees during school break." Rikku had finally finished her explaining.

"I'm not actually sure about her 'problems', she never talks about it so it'd be best to keep it between us." Rikku added.

Lulu smiled at Rikku before saying, "I'm not so sure about Yuna being alone, I think someone should go outside with her."

Rikku was about to walk to the door when Squall stretched his left arm out to stop her. He eyed Tidus, silently indicating to her that Tidus would be better. Without a word said, Tidus walked out of the cabin in his shorts and white t-shirt and made his way over to the beach. He looked around for a second until he saw a familiar back facing him. He quietly jogged over to where she was sitting, stopping a few meters away from her.

She appeared deep in thoughts, looking up in the black sky filled with twinkling stars, her hands playing with the silky sand beside her. She didn't even notice the presence of someone else sitting next to her.

"Beautiful night isn't it?" Tidus said, making himself obvious that he was there.

Yuna turned her attention to him, surprised that she didn't even notice Tidus and basically surprised that it was him. She stared at him for a while, still stunned that he came out after her. He slowly turned his head to look at her and smiled when he came face to face with her. Not a cocky smile, just a relaxed comforting smile. Feeling a sudden liking towards him, she nicely returned the smile and averted her concentration back to the stars.

"Yeah, it is." remembering his question he asked before.

An expected silence fell among them as they both stared into the never-ending night sky. Feeling slightly awkward, Yuna decided to start a conversation.

"So um, what are you doing out here?" she asked, looking at him.

Tidus merely shrugged, still concentrating on what's above him, "I don't know, guess I felt like it was the right thing to do."

Yuna gave him a confused look, "You felt like it was the right thing to do?"

"Yeah." He said still not looking at Yuna, while she on the other hand was studying his side face.

She remained silent, not exactly knowing what to do or what to say.

"Look," Tidus said, finally looking at Yuna, "I know about the whole thing."

Yuna looked at him, not knowing what he was going on about until she remembered about the Justin incident today.

"Oh, so I guess Rikku told you guys," she said lowly, a sudden look of sadness spread across her face.

"Hey, don't let that asshole bother you, he's just an all round dip shit."

Yuna simply giggled, "Yeah you're right, he _is_ the biggest jerk,"

"Ohhh," Tidus whined, "I thought I was the jerk. Thanks, I guess you found someone to replace me," Tidus joked, acting hurt.

Yuna suddenly burst out laughing, not a fake laugh but a whole-heartedly laugh.

"Look, my point is, that Jordan guy-,"

"Justin."

"Yeah, whatever, well he doesn't deserve you. I mean come on, you're like HOT and still he che-… I just think you're too good for him." Tidus said looking straight into her eyes.

Again, Yuna started laughing at what he just said making Tidus smirk himself.

"Oh I think someone here has a little crush on me," Yuna said teasingly yet making it sound sarcastic.

"Yeah, so what if I do," Tidus replied casually, looking up in the sky once again.

"W-what," Yuna asked, not believing what she just heard come out of his mouth.

Tidus turned his gaze back at her, "I said, So…What…If…I… Do," he repeated, emphasizing every word.

Yuna sat there speechless. Was he joking or was he for real? She felt like running away from the awkwardness but her legs were numb. She couldn't even breath properly now and she knew her face was burning red.

"I uh…I-I,"

"YUNIE, TIDUS! DINNER'S READY!" Rikku called out to them from the cabin.

It felt as though a huge rock had been lifted off of Yuna's shoulder as she breathed a sigh or relief. Thanking God silently, she decided to quickly leave. 

"COMING," Yuna called out, hurriedly getting up and walking away, also silently thanking Rikku for interrupting that awkward moment.

Tidus on the other hand cursed under his breath as he slowly got up from his position on the sand.

Rikku, I'm gonna kill you for this 

------------------------------

"Damn I'm full," Wakka said while rubbing his stomach.

"Yeah, me too, I think I'm gonna explode," Rikku added.

After the six teenagers finished their 'dinners' they all started talking about what they were going to do tomorrow. The guys huddled in their little group and quietly discussed something whilst the girls packed up their take away dinners.

"Hey Lulu tomorrow us guys are off to the Gym alright? So you girls can do whatever you want," Squall said.

"Okay, but when are you guys going?"

Squall turned to the guys before Tidus answered for him, "We're going at like noon or something, why?"

"Oh nothing, we're just gonna go shopping so we might meet you guys outside the Gym okay?"

"Sure," Squall finished.

"Hey! Wanna play truth or dare?" Rikku suggested again only getting _loud_ moans and groans.

----------------------------------

An: Thank-you to all the people who reviewed chapter seven, as I always say, it's really encouraging! After this chapter, the updates won't be that continuous. When the time draws close to an update, I will announce it in my bio. I think chapter eight will be updated probably at the end of October or beginning of November. But bear in mind, this fic will **not **be discontinued.

SkyeLight


	9. Goodnight

**_Chapter 9_**

**_Goodnight_**

**_------------------------------------_**

Yuna, Rikku and Lulu had left the house at two o'clock when they had planned to leave at twelve thinking that the guys were also leaving at that time. However, after an hour of waiting in vain, they decided to go first seeing that they wouldn't even budge when they tried waking them up.

"I am so happy I got this skirt for half price, I've been waiting forever for it to go down," Rikku squealed, holding up her shopping bag.

"Okay Rikku, let's calm down about the skirt okay? You haven't stopped since we've started eating," Lulu said while stabbing into her pasta.

"It's been two hours already, think the guys are at the Gym now?" Yuna asked, looking from Rikku who was drinking her ice coffee to Lulu who had now started at her ice cream.

"Well they better be! We're leaving in like an hour, so if they whine about not having enough time, well then that's their problem," Lulu replied.

"Yeah, guess so. Hey Lulu, I was always wondering, how did you and Wakka start?"

Lulu blushed deeply, receiving giggles from the girls sitting in front of her.

"…Well…,"

------------------------------

"Hey! How long has it been?" Squall panted while lifting the weights up.

"An hour and a half bro," Wakka replied, also breathless as he was on the treadmill.

The guys had woken up just as the girls left, leaving them fifteen minutes to get ready and fifteen minutes to get to the Gym which was close by to the Shopping Mall. Yuna, Rikku and Lulu had generously sacrificed the mini van for the guys and chose to walk to the mall.

"Hey Tidus," Squall started, "What happened when you went outside to Yuna yesterday?"

Tidus still lifting his weights replied, "Nothing, just crap. We were mostly looking at the stars,"

"Wow! Mr romantic now are we?" Wakka joked whilst getting off the treadmill and heading towards the weights again.

Tidus stifled a laugh before saying, "Whatever man,"

"Man, don't deny it. You've fallen for her haven't you?" Squall accused, getting up from his lying position and started on the treadmill.

"Ha! You've seriously got to be kidding," Tidus retorted.

------------------------------

"Oh my Gosh, that is so cute! Wakka actually secretly followed you around the school just to look at you. Gosh, I would never imagine someone as big as Wakka to do something so…cute," cried Rikku while they were making there way to the Gym.

"I know, and those little love letters, that is so adorable," Yuna added.

Lulu simply smiled and nodded, agreeing to what they were saying.

"Oh, I wish someone would do something just as sweet for me," Rikku said, daydreaming at the sky above.

------------------------------

"Come on, we don't wanna be late do we? They're gonna give us a two hour lecture if they were made waiting for us," Wakka said as Squall and Tidus simply took their time putting on their shirts.

"Chill Wakka, we're nearly done," Tidus started, "Or are you just anxious to see your **_girl_**friend?"

"Just shut up and hurry will ya?" Wakka replied, watching both of them laugh.

Not long later, Tidus and Squall were finally able to make it out of the Gym. They stood outside holding their gear,waiting for the girls to arrive.

"See, I told you to chill before, they're not even here yet," Tidus reminded Wakka while he merely shrugged.

"Yeah who cares, they're coming now," Squall pointed out.

------------------------------

"Look, the guys are over there, come on!" Rikku exclaimed jogging over to them.

Lulu simply shook her head before following Rikku, leaving Yuna the only one walking. As she was approaching the group, she felt a light tap on her shoulders. She turned around to see two young guys staring at her.

"Hey hot shot, care to give me your number?" one of the guys said flirtatiously.

"Yeah, or do you wanna have our numbers?" said the other guy beside him.

Yuna was pretty close to the group therefore Tidus had a clear view of what was happening, but this only caused him to sub-consciously clench his fist and grit his teeth.

"Hey, _hot shot_ care to shut up?" Yuna retorted, turning back around and started walking away.

"Well fine, but it's your lose." one of them shouted, only making Yuna roll her eyes.

"Hey Yunie, who were those two _hotties_ before?" Rikku asked sarcastically, winking at her.

"Funny Rikku, okay let's go now." Yuna said, not noticing the redness of a particular person's face.

------------------------------

After arriving back at the cabin, the group simply did the normal things they did the two previous nights. They mucked around a bit, ate dinner, mucked around some more then went off to bed. However, this time, Tidus was kicked out of his bedroom when Lulu had claimed his bed before he could. So not wanting to put up a fight, he gave up and walked into her bedroom only finding it empty. He merely stood there before a voice from behind started talking to him.

"Hey Lulu, where's your cream? I couldn't find it in the bath-OH MY GOSH!" she suddenly yelled when she lifted her head up to see a chest naked Tidus instead of Lulu.

Seeing her reaction only made Tidus snicker.

"Um, Hi?" he said

"What are you doing in my room?" Yuna questioned

"Our room, our room for tonight only though," he started, "Hey, I don't like this either, but Lulu and Wakka kicked me out of my room okay, so deal with it," he finished, half of it true, half of it not.

He really _really_didn't mind sharing the same room as Yuna, but to not make him sound perverted or anything, he had to add that part in.

"Fine, but you better not snore, or I'm seriously kicking you off the top bunk," she ordered.

"Top bunk? I don't think so, I think I'm taking the bottom," he protested.

"Hey, do you wanna sleep in here tonight, if so, you're taking the top and no more comment," Yuna commanded.

With a sigh and a shrug Tidus simply said, "Whatever," before climbing up to the top bunk. Once seeing Tidus finally settling down on the top bunk bed, Yuna walked out of the room and into the bathroom to get changed into her PJ's. A short while later, Yuna entered the room and closed the door behind her. She was about to say goodnight to Tidus, out of habit, but was instead interrupted by a "Wow," by Tidus. She was wearing a pair of p.j pants and a yellow singlet revealing her belly button. She quickly switched off the light and jumped into bed, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

"Nice PJ's you got there," Tidus stated, "Like mine?" he asked jokingly.

"Just go to sleep." Yuna replied, blushing furiously.

"Hey, I quite like my boxers thank-you very much."

"Yeah, I'm glad you've realized that that's the _only_ thing you've got on," Yuna snapped back

"Yeah, like you could talk, you're only wearing one thing more than me. Unless of course you feel like taking that off," Tidus said teasingly before receiving a punch on the arm.

He turned his face around to Yuna who had risen from her position on the bed and was standing on her mattress to reach him.

"Ouch, that wasn't very nice." he said, putting on his best gentlemen-like voice on.

"Good, you deserved that."

"I don't see how those two dip shits wanted to pick you up in the first place," Tidus said after Yuna went back down on her bed.

"So what, at least they were good looking." she lied.

"GOOD LOOKING!?" Tidus accidentally yelled out, "You think those idiots were good looking?"

"Yeah sorta." Yuna giggled

"So you're saying that, you reckon they're hot?"

"Um, yes," Yuna said back, tired of repeating herself

"Man, then you must think I'm like a **'God'** or something if you think those guys were hot." Tidus said seriously

Yuna merely laughed, "Well you sure think a lot of yourself."

Tidus simply smiled to himself, glad that Yuna did not try to deny the fact that he was much better looking than those 'hotties'.

"Goodnight," he said cheerfully

"…Goodnight,"

------------------------------

"OW!"

"Wake up Tidus," Yuna said, jumping off her bed.

"You didn't have to punch you know?" Tidus complained as he rubbed his arm.

"Oh I'm sorry, now hurry up!"

Tidus groggily got off his bed and made his way to the bathroom while mumbling complaints. Yuna merely smiled and left the room, allowing him to change in there afterwards.

"So where are we off to today?" Wakka asked

"Well, we're going to this place with beautiful scenery and…WE'RE GONNA TAKE PICTURES!" Rikku cried excitedly.

"Um, Rikku, are you kidding?" Wakka asked as Lulu shook her head in amusement.

"Ah no, you've seriously got to be kidding," Squall added

"I'm not, come guys! It'll be fun and plus we need something to remember this trip by," Rikku pointed out

"Well, I think it's a good idea so I'm not objecting," Lulu helped.

"No, but that's gonna be so boring," Yuna added, siding with Squall and Wakka

"Yeah," Squall and Wakka both cried in unison

"I don't care, we're going and that's final. Now where the hell is Tidus?" Lulu asked, looking around the group.

"I'm here," he replied sleepily as he walked out of the room fully changed and ready.

"Good, so let's get going now," Rikku exclaimed.

------------------------------

As soon as they arrived at the place with 'beautiful scenery', which was actually called 'Horizon', Lulu and Rikku both got off the van and started taking pictures. Yuna and the three other guys simply got off the van and lagged behind them, not bothering to even get into the pictures.

"Wow, this place is nice. And look at that water fall, it's huge!" Yuna pointed out.

"Hmm, that mountain looks pretty dangerous. Wanna go up there?!" Rikku cried enthusiastically

"NO!!" the whole group cried in unison

"Fine,"

------------------------------

"Can we go now, we've been here for like two hours already," Yuna whined, swinging her arms around

"Okay okay, let's go then," Lulu said, taking her last picture of the waterfall.

As they slowly started making their way back to the van, they bumped into another group on the way. Unfortunately, Justin was part of this group they bumped into.

"Yuna," Justin said, stepping forward

Yuna simply glared at him before Rikku said, "Justin, just leave us alone,"

"Rikku, please," He said in a pleading voice. "Um can I have a private talk with you Yuna?"

"No, I think Yuna's better off staying here… with her friends," Tidus interrupted, also glaring at Justin.

Justin looked at Tidus before averting his gaze back to Yuna, "Look Yuna, I'm really sorry with what happened, I wasn't thinking right. It was her fault, she came to me crying and-,"

"No Justin! It wasn't entirely her fault, it was also yours, so just leave me the hell alone!" Yuna hissed before pushing her way past him.

However, as she was walking away, she felt a tight firm hand grip around her wrist. "Please Yuna, I need you back, I swear I'll never do it again, just give me another chance," Justin begged.

"Ow, Justin you're hurting me," Yuna cried, trying to free her wrist from his grip.

"Just give me another chance, come back to Besaid h-,"

But he was interrupted when suddenly he felt someone push him back forcefully and abruptly causing him to stumble a few steps backwards.

"She asked you to leave her the hell alone, so piss off asshole," Tidus hissed at him, standing in front of Yuna.

Justin looked fiercely at Tidus before his right hand went flying towards Tidus' direction. But before it could reach its target, Tidus caught his right hand with ease before greeting him with the same gesture, only this time; it was able to locate its target. The punch was hard and painful causing Justin to bleed slightly on the left side of his mouth. He touched the blood on his lip then started charging at Tidus, trying to punch him on the face but failed miserably every time. Tidus however was able to hit him most of the time. He grabbed Justin by the collar and swung him to the ground before continuing to bash him up.

"Stop it you guys!" Yuna cried

This made Tidus look up at Yuna, enabling Justin to take a swing at his jaw. Surprisingly, the punch was extremely hard, therefore Tidus' lip also started to bleed and a big bruise on the cheek was starting to show just like the bruises he gave Justin. Finally Squall, who was actually enjoying watching Tidus bash the shit out of Justin, stepped in.

He forcefully pulled Tidus off of him before kicking Justin on the side.

"You better watch your back asshole and leave Yuna the hell alone," Tidus warned looking perfectly fine besides the little trickle of blood on the side of his mouth.

Justin on the other hand, was a complete different story. Tidus had given him many bruises on the face, a blood nose and cuts. His 'friends', stood in and helped him stand properly, "Go to hell," was all Justin said before his friends pulled him away.

The group all stood there in silent, not daring to piss Tidus off any more than he already was. After a while, Tidus began walking back to the van with the group following behind. When Wakka started driving back to the cabin, Squall and Tidus started talking with their faces turned away from the group, therefore no one was able to hear them for they were no louder than low mumbling. Yuna merely looked down on the floor feeling ashamed that she was why they started fighting. But one thing confused her a lot. Why did Tidus get so angry over it?

As soon as Lulu opened the cabin door, Tidus stormed inside without saying anything to anyone.

"Ti-," Yuna started but stopped halfway when she saw Squall shaking his head. Knowing that Squall was the only one who knew what was going on in Tidus' head since they were great friends, she decided to take his advice and remain quiet.

Tidus walked back to his original room and closed the door behind him. Not long later, very faint running water was heard from Tidus' en suite, so everyone presumed that he was taking a shower.

Tidus still had not left the room for an hour or two and Rikku needed to know what he wanted for dinner, but the little scenario before kept playing in her mind therefore she didn't dare to even knock on his door. Squall simply sighed as he slowly made his way to the wooden door of Tidus' and Wakka's room before knocking on it to announce his arrival. Not hearing a reply, he simply welcomed himself to the room. "Tidus, what do you want for dinner?" Squall asked casually.

"Nah it's okay," Tidus mumbled

"Sure?"

"Yeah."

And with that, Squall left the room closing the door behind him. He shook his head at Rikku indicating that Tidus didn't order anything. Yuna had paid attention to the situation through out the entire night and she, along with Rikku, also noticed the simple gesture from Squall. Before Rikku was able to leave the cabin, Yuna hurriedly walked towards her, whispering something into the blonde's ear. Rikku simply nodded.

------------------------------

Squall and Rikku had retired to bed a while after their dinner, whilst Wakka, Lulu and Yuna were preparing to do the same.

"Umm, Yuna can I ask you something?" Lulu asked

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well, I was planning to sleep in Wakka's room tonight, but you know because of Tidus I can't so I was wondering if it would be okay if Wakka slept in our room and you move to Tidus'?"

Yuna looked at Lulu with a little shock, "U-Um I guess for tonight,"

"Actually, would it be okay if you like actually, you know, stayed with Tidus. Like take all your stuff to his room? And please don't get me wrong, you're a great roommate but you know," Lulu said, blushing after the last few words.

Yuna still feeling unsure couldn't help but giggle, "Okay, but you owe me big time girl," she joked.

"Great, thanks Yuna," Lulu said, hugging her.

A while later after Yuna had packed everything back into her bags; she carried it outside of the room and closed the door behind her.

'Guess I have a new room from tonight onwards' 

As she was making her way to Tidus' room, she caught sight of the paper bag resting on the table reminding her that she needed to bring that into the room as well. However, with both her hands full, the only place left to carry it with was her mouth; therefore she carefully bit the top of the paper bag.

When she arrived at the door of the room, she dropped off one of the luggage to turn the knob before pushing her way through the door with all her luggage in hand.

"Wakka, I'm not leaving tonight so you might as well stay with Lulu in the lounge," Tidus said, sitting down on his bottom bunk bed with his back leaning on the bars and his legs stretched out.

"Hi, it's me," Yuna managed to say through the paper bag.

Tidus swung his head abruptly to see Yuna standing there in a mess with a paper bag in her mouth. He laughed slightly at the sight but quickly hid it. Yuna noticed the little laughter he had, helping her ease the guilt inside of her. She dumped her bags on the floor and placed the paper bag on the table.

"What are you doing in here with all your luggage?" Tidus asked, trying his hardest to act as though he didn't care.

"Well, I got kicked out of my room so now I'm officially your roommate," Yuna explained.

Tidus simply looked at her before staring at the wall once again.

Not sure of what to say to him and feeling the tension in the room, she began with the paper bag, "Um Tidus, I sorta told Rikku to get you your dinner anyways,"

Tidus looked at Yuna slightly surprised that she did this for him. He slowly got up and sat at the table opening up the paper bag with teeth marks on the top. He looked at her again causing her to blush, "Sorry," she mumbled making Tidus smirk.

He opened the bag to reveal a hamburger, sandwich, subway, a bottle of Coke, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, fries and a hotdog. His eyes widened after looking at his wide range of food.

"I didn't know what you wanted to eat, so I just told her to get all this. There's gotta be something in there you like…right?" she asked, worried that he didn't like any of it.

Immediately, the worry flew away as she received a smile of appreciation from Tidus, "Yeah, thanks," and with that, he started stuffing himself with food. Yuna smiled as she sat herself down on the opposite side of him on the small circular table. She was watching him eat intently when something interrupted her.

"Ow!" he cried holding onto his jaw

"Are you okay?" Yuna asked but only getting a nod and a frown as a reply. She knew it must've of been painful considering his expression.

"Wait," she said as she walked over to her bags.

Tidus, on the other hand, went back lying down on his bed. After a while of shuffling through her bag, she finally found what she was looking for.

"Found it," she said as she sat on the edge of Tidus' bed. She unscrewed the lid off, revealing cream inside before carefully placing Tidus' head on her lap. This caught Tidus slightly off guard but adjusted to it quickly when he noticed that Yuna wasn't aware of what she was doing. She squeezed a small amount of cream onto her middle finger and began cautiously rubbing it onto Tidus' cheek.

He winced slightly at the pain causing Yuna to soften her touch.

"When I was little, my mum would always apply this cream on my bruises," she said concentrating on Tidus' cheek.

Tidus however wasn't concentrating on what she was saying; he was too busy drowning in her eyes. Her pretty face mesmerized him as he was also enjoying the closeness of their bodies. He noticed that she didn't realize that he was staring at her therefore he took this opportunity to continue what he was doing.

Not really knowing what Yuna was talking about, he interrupted her by grabbing her right wrist, which was the hand she was using to apply the cream, and pushed himself up by the elbows so he was looking straight into Yuna's eyes.

Yuna suddenly stopped speaking as soon as she felt her wrist being gently yet quickly held onto. She looked up to meet Tidus' eyes staring attentively at her like he was trying to read her. It felt as though time just stopped, everything around them just froze. She couldn't help but also drown in his ocean blue eyes.

Unable to hold back his feelings for her anymore, he slowly leaned into her, eager to close the gap between their mouths. Yuna froze as she saw him lean towards her, she didn't know what to do, her mind told her to move but her heart begged to differ. So still unable to decide, she allowed her heart to take over. She closed her eyes when she was able to feel his hot breath against her lips, waiting patiently for the kiss…

**knock knock **

The interruption caused both of them to open their eyes immediately and jump at the same time. Yuna quickly got up from the bed and freed her wrist from Tidus' soft grasp. Forgetting about the knock on the door, Yuna merely stood there fidgeting with the bottom of her top whilst blushing crimson red. Tidus simply stayed seated on the bed staring at Yuna, not understanding why she was suddenly so nervous, he still reached out his hand to hold onto her wrist once more.

"Yu-," **knock knock**

But before he could either finish off saying her name or grabbing a hold on her, he was again interrupted by the annoying knocking on their door. Yuna fled to the door like she needed air and opened it to see Rikku standing there.

"Y-Yes Rikku?" Yuna stuttered

"Oh! I thought Wakka was in this room, sorry," Rikku apologized before looking past Yuna to see Tidus sitting on the edge of the bed with his side facing her.

"Tidus, are you okay?" Rikku asked as soon as she noticed Tidus death glaring at her

Yuna turned around to see what Rikku meant and understood perfectly when she saw his expression.

"Um, Rikku, I really need to take a shower now. So like can you…"

"Yes yes yes, I know I'm interrupting, I'll just leave you two alone now," Rikku said with a wink before leaving.

With that, Yuna quickly grabbed her clothing and hurriedly walked into the en suite, locking the door behind her.

'_Mental note: Kick Rikku's arse when no one's around.'_

Tidus thought to himself.

Slowly a smile crept up his face

_'If it weren't for Rikku, I would've already kissed her.'_

Still with a smirk on his face, he sighed loudly before lying back down, allowing sleep to claim him.

--------------------------------

An: Oh My Gosh! Thank you guys so much for the reviews, they were all so encouraging! Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I will try to post the next chapter up ASAP, but please be patient if I can't update it as quickly as I want. Oh and for the first time, I've already started on the next chapter so I'm pretty sure it'll come out soon! It will focus on a different side of Tidus. Good or bad? Well you'll just have to read it!

SkyeLight


	10. Bring it On

**_Chapter 10_**

**_Bring It On_**

**_---------------------------------------_**

_'Why can't I stop thinking about him?!__ I haven't stopped since last night! Last night when he tried to kiss me, last night when I also wanted to kiss him. Oh my Gosh, I actually wanted to kiss him?! But why? I mean come on! He's stuck up, a total show off, annoying, arrogant, a pretty good glarer, got a nice voice, sexy body, gorgeous face, luscious lips… **SHUTUP!** Still, that's no excuse for wanting to kiss him… Oh shush Yuna. Stop repeating that!'_

"Yunie?" a voice interrupted from behind, jerking Yuna out of her thoughts, "Are you okay? You seem like you're a million miles away." Rikku said looking slightly concerned.

"..No, I'm fine," Yuna reassured Rikku as she continued changing into her gear in the ladies change room.

**'FINE?!** Of course I'm **not** fine. I'm far from being fine! A guy who I thought I hated wanted to kiss me last night while at the same time I wanted to kiss him back and now I can't stop thinking about him. It's all Tidus Tidus Tidus in my head.'

'But… he **did** save me from those two creeps that night, and comfort me after that incident with Justin **and** he bashed Justin up for me. And maybe he wasn't lying when he told me he didn't pull those pranks on me, I mean he did look incredibly pissed when he saw what happened to his car… hehehe… Oh yeah, that was sooo funny. Okay I'm gonna tell you once more Yuna… **Shutup**** already**! Arghh, why won't his image go away?… crap!…Don't tell me I've…'

------------------------------

'Great, she's been avoiding me this whole damn morning, just great. Surely everything is going your way **Tidus**! Why the hell is she acting all shy and stuff, she was never like this before!'

'No shit Tidus, that's 'cause you never tried to kiss her before and last night… **you did!** So congratulations for fully screwing up your chances with her man. And anyway, she probably didn't even want to kiss you!'

'Firstly, I **didn't** screw up any of my chances with her. Secondly what the hell are you talking about her not wanting to kiss me? Shit dude, everyone wants me and you know that. But why wouldn't they, I mean I am a chick magnet and extremely hot face **and** body. Trust me, I still have plenty of chances with her. I'm not giving up that easily. You'll see later.'

Tidus silently argued with himself as he was also changing into his gear in the men's changing room.

"Tidus, you ready?" Wakka asked.

Tidus, being brought out of his thoughts with a jerk, looked up to see Squall and Wakka already finished.

"Yeah I'm ready. Let's go!" Tidus said as he shoved his clothes in his bag.

------------------------------

'Okay Yuna, just relax and act normal. Just relax and act normal.'

Yuna repeated to herself as the three girls made their way out to meet with the guys. Lulu, being the most impatient one among them right now, was walking speedily ahead while Yuna and Rikku simply took their time behind.

Noticing the tension within Yuna, Rikku asked, "Yunie, you sure you're okay? You seem a little nervous," Rikku pointed out.

Becoming even more tensed when she realized that Rikku noticed her nervousness, she forcefully said, "I'm… cool,"

Rikku knew that it would be useless if she continued questioning Yuna therefore dismissed the topic after nodding her understandings at Yuna. Yuna, however, unlike Rikku found difficulty in dismissing the topic that easily but nevertheless she continued acting normal. Finally, seeing the three guys and Lulu all waiting for her and Rikku, Yuna's heartbeat suddenly increased ten times its original speed when she caught Tidus eyeing her. Her walking speed slowed down even more as she was getting more anxious and self-conscious. Luckily Rikku was there to pull her by the arm and drag her over to the group or else she might've just stood there looking like an idiot.

"About time girls," Wakka said, acting unpleased.

"Oh shut up! Come on let's go! I want to get into the pools now!" Rikku shrieked excitedly before jerking Yuna over to the swimming pools, pushing the guys out of her way.

Tidus, who was slightly disappointed to see Yuna show up in a one-piece bathing suit, remained silent as he followed the group over to the pools. However, as he continuously gave sideway glances at Yuna, he realized how great she still looked in her dark blue bathers, although the thought of her in a two-piece again was much more tempting.

"WOW! Look how big this pool is, and it's all to ourselves," Lulu stated with a big grin on her face.

"Well duh! Who the hell wakes up this early just to go swimming?" Squall said, slightly annoyed that he was forcefully pulled out of bed by two girls in the morning.

"Well I'm sorry Mr. I-need-my-beauty-sleep-'cause-I'm-such-a-stupid-loser! But I wouldn't consider eight in the morning that early," Lulu argued back calmly.

Squall gave her a one eyebrow up look before asking, "What does me being a stupid loser have anything to do with my beauty sleep **not** that I'm saying I have any?"

"Oh just shoosh both of you." Rikku interrupted as she pushed an off guard Squall in the pool.

Squall, wiping off the water on his face, with a sly grin said, "Oh you are so gonna regret doing that,"

And with that he jumped up from the water and grabbed onto Rikku's wrist, pulling her in the water along with him. She shrieked as she felt herself being pulled in but giggled uncontrollably when she surfaced, splashing Squall with water.

Wakka looked over at Lulu and asked, "So do you wanna join 'em?"

"No way! Look at them, they look like two childr-ahhh!"

But it was too late. Before she even got to finish off her sentence, Wakka had already pulled her into the water, and just like Rikku, Lulu began splashing Wakka with the pool water. Yuna giggled softly as she witnessed both of the girls getting pulled into the water. Not being in the mood to swim, she made her way over to the long vertical ladder and carefully made her way up there. She sat herself down on the edge of the wide plank, where people often jumped from, and sat there watching them play happily. Suddenly she noticed someone missing.

'Where's Tidus?'

"Hey, what are you doing up here alone?" a soft voice asked her from behind.

She knew this voice belonged to Tidus, therefore without turning her head she answered, "Well, I can ask you the very same question,"

Tidus smirked before walking over to the edge where Yuna sat and placed himself next to her, arms slightly touching and legs dangling on the edge just like Yuna. Yuna shivered slightly as their bare skins made contact but pushed that feeling aside almost instantly.

"I came up here to see what you were doing," he replied casually, "But you haven't answered my question. What are you doing up here alone?"

Yuna turned her head slightly to look at him before saying, "Guess I'm not in the mood to swim, so I figured I'll watch them from up here. I mean who would want to jump from up here? Look how high it is,"

Tidus smiled as he pushed himself up into a standing position, "Do you seriously wanna know who?" he asked, looking down at Yuna with a smile.

"W-what?" she asked confused.

"Well you know how you said you weren't in the mood to swim before? Well I guess that's just too bad," and with that he quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her down along with him as he jumped off.

Within that few seconds the only thing heard was the screams from Yuna.

"Oh..My..God," Rikku said as her jaw fell open, watching them jump off that high high **HIGH** plank and watching Yuna scream with her hand holding onto Tidus'.

Finally hitting the calm water, Yuna and Tidus surfaced inhaling as much air as possible. Yuna, still shocked with what just happened and feeling extremely cold, only found herself looking at a very wet and laughing Tidus. Because they were in the deep end, they were forced to tread water.

"I-I'm glad you find me getting p-pulled into the water a-amusing," Yuna said while shivering and treading water at the same time.

Tidus, who was still laughing uncontrollably and who still looked perfectly fine just wet, managed to say, "Oops?"

Still watching him laugh, Yuna herself couldn't help but smile. Therefore wanting to get him back for what he did, she swam closer to Tidus before dunking his head into the water. He came up sputtering; smiling at the fact that Yuna had started laughing along with him. Noticing that the tension in Yuna gradually easing off, Tidus himself felt somewhat relaxed as well.

Dunking his head in again, this time longer, Tidus opened his eyes underwater and couldn't help but stare at Yuna's legs. Realizing that he desperately needed air, he forcefully pushed himself up. Once he did, he again couldn't help but simply tread water whilst watching Yuna laugh. With a sly grin, he said, "That's it, you're gonna get it," and with that, Tidus dived into the water leaving a confused Yuna whirling around in circles trying to figure out what he was up to.

Suddenly, she felt his arms wrap around her ankles before getting strongly pushed upwards. Yuna went flying in the air for a quick few seconds then came splashing down into the warmer water once again. This time, it was Yuna's turn to surface sputtering. Eventually she heard the whole group laughing after she was able to push all the water out of her ear. Taking in a deep breath, she turned around to Tidus and said seriously, "I'm gonna show you the price you must pay… for messing with the best,"

With a large smile on her face, she quickly dived into the water and began madly chasing Tidus. Knowing exactly what she was up to, Tidus sarcastically shrieked like a girl as he also quickly swam away.

"Tidus doesn't seem, you know, unhappy anymore," Rikku muttered to Squall, watching them swim around occasionally coming up for quick short breaths.

"Mm," Squall nodded.

"Let's go over and join 'em ya?" Wakka insisted, swimming over to the pair with Lulu behind.

Rikku and Squall merely looked at each shrugging before racing each other to the rest of the group.

Tidus and Yuna, finally out of their own little world, noticed the group approaching them therefore they both decided to end their game. Even though they secretly would've appreciated the time alone, they were still happy when Rikku demanded that they play some sort of gladiator game in the water.

"Okay, you guys have to pair yourselves up to play this game. Squall's mine so I have a partner!" Rikku declared, clinging her arm around Squall's arm.

"Squall's… yours?" Yuna asked smiling mischievously with an eyebrow cocked up causing Rikku and Squall to turn the same shade of redness.

"Y-you know what I mean by that," Rikku stuttered, unable to look anyone in the eye especially Squall.

"No I don't, mind sharing it with me?" Yuna laughed, this time making the rest of the group chuckle softly.

Turning even more red, Rikku retorted, "Well what about you and Tidus?!"

Yuna eyes instantly widened as she had feared someone would actually say that out loud NOT that anything was actually going on. Thinking fast to counter back at Rikku and save her from the embarrassment, Tidus came in just in time. The blonde swam up from behind Yuna, wrapping both his arms around her slim waist before helping her out, "That's different, Yuna here digs me. Unless of course you're saying you dig Squall," he said with his chin rested on Yuna's shoulders.

Yuna slapped her forehead after he's so called 'come back' as she heard Wakka and Lulu laughing at the four of them.

'Great, exactly what I needed'

Again relying on herself to get her out of this awkward situation Tidus had created for her, she realized that Tidus had took this advantage to hold onto her. Therefore getting an idea of what to do, she turned her head to where Tidus' chin was resting and seductively said, "Tidus,"

The very instant her voice was heard, Tidus' head and eyes shot up but quickly hid it. He turned slightly towards Yuna's face before asking sweetly, "Yes Yuna?"

"Oh nothing, just this!" she said seductively once again however this time elbowing him hard in his rib cage.

"Holy shit Yuna! What was that for?" Tidus cried, clutching onto the spot where she elbowed him after he went shooting away from her.

Yuna turned around to see his face scrunched up in agony before putting on her sweetest innocent smile and said, "Oops?" and turned around and swam off to the group as they were getting ready for the game.

Although under the amount of pain Tidus was in, he still managed to smile when she swam off.

'She's very good at mocking me. She always seems to get the chance to. I'll get her one day.'

With that thought, he cheerfully swam over to join the group, bearing in mind that he was still in need of a partner, and he knew exactly whom he wanted. So just like Rikku, he clung his arm around Yuna's left arm, rested his head on her shoulder and began sucking his thumb acting like a baby.

"Partner, Yuna?"

Squall, Wakka and Lulu all slapped their foreheads at the same time.

"Oh Hyne,"

"Oh Yevon,"

"Oh God,"

Rikku simply giggled at Tidus thinking that he was so adorable and Yuna turned her head the other way also giggling and at the same time slightly embarrassed. Tidus on the other hand remained clinging to her, resting his head on her shoulder sucking his thumb and had his eyes wide opened like an innocent cute baby looking up at Yuna for her reply.

"Well it's not like I have any other choices," Yuna sighed, "But you better not make me lose!" she ordered.

Letting go of her instantly, Tidus saluted Yuna by kicking the water beneath him, "Yes Ma'am!"

Again Yuna giggled softly, slapping Tidus' arm playfully before she swam off to Rikku. As Yuna left, Tidus could've sworn he heard her mumble something along the lines of "You can be such a cutie."

------------------------------

"So basically how you play this game is, you guys have to carry us chicks on the shoulders and you guys are also in charge of keeping us balanced while we try to push over our opponent. Of course there could only be two pairs playing at once meaning one pair will have to sit out and wait, hopefully not too long seeing that Squall and I are gonna bring you all down," Rikku explained, turning around to high five Squall.

Yuna walked over to Rikku in the shallow end and lightly punched her on the arm.

"OW?!" Rikku cried, "What was that for?"

"Oh I'm sorry; I thought you were dreaming there. Well now that I know you're awake, I just wanted to let you know that you're staring at the to-be winners right in the face," Yuna said as she stepped backward next to Tidus with her arms crossed against her chest while Tidus immediately improvised by putting his hands on his hips and pushing his chest out more.

"Hah!" Rikku laughed, "I'm sorry honey, but the fact is, we're simply the best so Bring..It..On," doing the side-to-side neck thing.

"Oh trust me sweetie, I'm Bringing It on," Yuna said, also doing the side-to-side neck thing.

"Wow! Okay people, I think Wakka and I are gonna sit out first. Don't wanna get caught in that little feud there," Lulu joked

"Well I guess it's me against you now. Hmm that's never happened before," Squall said, hitting Tidus on the back.

"Talk about it, look at those two getting all hyped up about it." Tidus chuckled

"I hope they're as weak as they look, don't wanna get too physical later, we'll just leave that to the chicks,"

-------------------------------

An: Okay, quite pointless there but just bear with me for like a few more chapters and I promise things will get more interesting! Nevertheless, please send me a review! )

SkyeLight


	11. Bringing It On

**_Chapter 11_**

**_Bringing It On_**

**_---------------------------------------_**

After a while of pointless boasting and sarcastic remarks, they were finally urged by Wakka to get the game started.

"Hey, why don't you all just shut up and start ya?"

Wakka smirked as soon as he noticed the four of them obediently followed his order, "Am I good or am I good?"

As soon as they got to the point where the water reached slightly above the guys' waistline, they automatically stopped, knowing that this height was most suitable. Without a word spoken to the opposition, Yuna and Rikku both started to get into position. They both hopped onto the two guys' shoulders with ease having the help of the water and steadied themselves. However, even though they managed to maintain most of their balance, Yuna and Rikku still wobbled slightly.

Knowing that Yuna was going to fall off if she was going to continue being this unsteady, Tidus grabbed both her hands to steady her for a little while before releasing her them and moving down to hold onto her shins and calves.

Once they were both ready, Rikku asked, "Ready to Lose?"

Yuna simply smiled wickedly before saying, "I'm ready, but losing is your job."

And with that, Tidus and Squall charged at each other, stopping when they felt Yuna and Rikku's arms coming into contact. Laughing and shrieking wildly, Yuna and Rikku both tried their hardest pushing each other off by gripping on each other's upper arm. Unfortunately for the two guys below, Rikku and Yuna's reflexes started to come in place. As the two girls above continued pushing, their legs also started to move or kick.

"Wow wow wow! Yuna stop moving so much! I'm starting to lose my grip on you!" Tidus cried as he kept moving around in the water to keep Yuna's body balanced.

"Rikku.. **AHH Shit!** Stop kicking! **Oh crap!** My fricken ribcage!" Squall yelled up to her in pain.

"Ha ha! At least my sweet partner ain't kicking m- **AHH Holy Crap!** Yuna you're kicking my.. **Oh Goddamn!..** rib- **Sweet mercy of God!** –cage." Tidus screamed, interrupting himself by swearing every time she kicked him by reflex.

Squall laughed out loudly even though Rikku continued kicking him with her heels.

"Man, don't laugh! I'm in a **ahh**shitload of pain!" Tidus growled.

"Yeah well so am I! **Ah!**" Squall growled back.

Then they looked at each other grinning evilly while the girls up top still continued wrestling. Looking at each other, they slowly mouthed 'one' 'two' before yelling out, "**THREE!**"

And with that, they powerfully pushed both the wrestlers off their shoulders, making them jump before instantly landing in the water. Yuna and Rikku both surfaced sputtering and wiping their faces with squinted eyes.

"Wh-What was that for?" Yuna coughed.

"Yeah! What's the big deal?"

"It was his idea!" Tidus and Squall both cried in unison.

------------------------------

"Stop pushing, I'm trying to open the door!" Lulu ordered as she struggled to insert the rusted key inside the keyhole.

As soon as they all entered, coincidentally Squall's cell phone started ringing. Grabbing his phone from his back pocket with ease he mumbled, "Hello."

"Hello Squall?" the voice answered.

"Yeah… who's this?" Squall asked, sounding completely uninterested.

"It's Miss Daniels, Squall."

"What? How the hell did you get my cell phone number?" Squall asked, confusion taking over his voice while at the same time he death glared Lulu.

A soft giggling was heard before she started explaining, "Well I got it off Lulu before you all went off to your camping trip," Miss Daniels started.

Squall remained silent waiting for her to continue her explanation.

"Well the reason why I called you is to ask you to inform your whole group that the two-week period has been cancelled, therefore everyone is expected to return by tomorrow afternoon," she finished.

"And why?" Squall asked

"This will be explained to everyone tomorrow. So I'll be seeing you all tomorrow afternoon," Miss Daniels said cheerfully before hanging up.

Squall hung up his cell phone as he turned towards the group.

"That was Miss Daniels. Said that the camp has been cancelled so we have to return by tomorrow afternoon." Squall announced to the group.

------------------------------

"Okay please quiet down." Miss Daniels ordered after everyone had assembled in the hall and taken their seats.

Conversations gradually died down and the teachers gave their approving nod to the youngest teacher Miss Daniels to carry on. She cleared her throat and fidgeted slightly as the realization finally dawned on her that 250 students were waiting intently for her speech, or in other words, explanation. She scanned the hall silently when she suddenly heard an irritated grunt from behind. Without turning around, she already knew who had made that rude noise and realized that the Principal's patience was running thin. Therefore, not wanting to get on 'the almighty Principal's' nerves, she decided to start her speech.

"Well, I understand that the burning question on everyone's mind is 'Why has the camp been cut short?' I'll answer that in a short while. So far how has the camping trip been guys?" Miss Daniels asked nervously, trying to break the tension.

Unfortunately for her, the hall remained silent, which only got her even more uneasy. She coughed nervously and was about to simply get to the point when she suddenly heard a familiar voice yell out.

"It was good!"

The group of teachers behind her was not impressed; nonetheless Miss Daniels was extremely grateful that Rikku had decided to save her from the embarrassment. The teachers, not being able to identify the person, simply dismissed it. Miss Daniels however, smiled sweetly at her even though she was seated all the way down the back.

"Well that's nice to hear. Firstly, on behalf of the teachers, I would like to apologize for the sudden shortage of your camping trip. If it weren't for an important phone call, your trip would've remained as a two week period."

There was a sudden burst of whispering after the announcement of the 'important phone call.' Surprisingly the whispers faded almost immediately, so Miss Daniels continued.

"We received a phone call from Luca high and they have asked our Blitzball team to verse theirs. The date is not yet confirmed as it has been changed many times. All the teachers knew about the challenge already long before now, however we were planning to announce it only when the time drew near, but it seems that the time is quite undecided therefore we chose to cut the camp's duration in half."

The hall no longer erupted with whispers; everyone simply spoke in excited tones, completely ignoring the presence of the teachers. Zanarkand High had the best Blitzball team; therefore everyone looked tremendously forward to it. Luckily for the teachers, the students had taken the news optimistically, saving them from anymore apologies and explanations.

"So Zanarkand Abes, prepare yourselves to the fullest and victory will be ours!"

The hall exploded with loud cheers and ear piercing whistles.

-----------------------------------

The six teenagers walked together towards the parking lot as they themselves and many others around them were still optimistically talking about the Blitzball tournament. Rikku continuously jumped in front of the group, pestering them with questions while Yuna remained walking beside Tidus, who stayed unusually quiet.

Yuna was just about to ask Tidus what was wrong when suddenly someone came running towards him and pounced on him. The group instinctively backed away as soon as that person jumped into Tidus' unwilling arms.

"Whoa!" He stumbled a few steps backwards.

"Tidus," Myleena cried whilst holding onto Tidus, "I missed you so much!"

Yuna on the other hand felt a slight pang of jealousy watching the brunette embrace Tidus. She felt like grabbing Myleena by the hair and screaming in her face, 'back off my man!' but obviously that wasn't going to happen because firstly, Tidus _wasn't _her man and secondly, because he wasn't even _close _to being her man. So she merely stood there trying to mask her annoyance in front of Tidus.

"Uh hey Myleena," Tidus stammered, awkwardly peeling Myleena off of him, but was only met with Myleena linking her arm around his arm.

No matter how hard and how good Yuna was at masking her true emotions at that moment, Tidus was still able to detect the jealousy. He begged Yevon that Yuna wasn't going to get too fazed about it but knew his pleading went by unheard. If only it had been Yuna who had jumped into his arms, he found himself thinking.

"Hey Squall! Hey Wakka! Hey Lulu!" Myleena suddenly stopped when her eyes fell upon Rikku and Yuna. Giving Yuna a look full of contempt, she merely said, "Oh… hi." which in fact turned out like she was constipated.

Sensing that she was going to burst if she stayed any longer, Yuna figured that it would be wise for her to leave before anything else happened. She cleared her throat and said, "Uh I think I should go now. Bye guys!" and with that she started casually walking towards her car which was supervised by the teachers when they left for camp.

Quickly, without thinking, Tidus unlinked his arm from Myleena and ran after Yuna, grabbing her softly around the wrist. Yuna turned around swiftly and faced Tidus, a mixture of confusion and surprise evident on her delicate facial features.

"Um," Tidus didn't know what he wanted to say, he just knew he didn't want Yuna to leave. He started thinking rapidly, digging his mind to find something productive to say, "Bye Yuna." but he failed. He let his head drop slightly as he mumbled his biding.

Yuna felt her shoulders drop a little bit from the disappointment. She wasn't really expecting anything or much for that matter, but something in her pulled her hopes up. She smiled a fake smile, releasing her wrist gently from his grasp and said, "Bye Tidus."

Myleena stood there as she felt the blood rush to her face. She trembled slightly in anger, watching Tidus hold onto the _enemy's_ wrist. How could he? How could he suddenly change his feelings towards Yuna so rapidly and dramatically? It was the camp. She knew it; they must've gotten close during that short one week period. All her pranks simply went down the drain; all the goddamn time and money just freely blew out the window. For Yevon's sake, she was supposed to be the enemy!

------------------------------

The once cloudless blue sky was now replaced by a blanket of stars as the soft wind blew through Zanarkand. Standing on the balcony of her apartment, Yuna was able to see a fraction of the center of the metropolitan. She remembered her father once told her that Zanarkand never slept, and now, she was able to see for herself. It was a Friday night and the town seemed even more packed with people as they moved around like ants from Yuna's point of view.

She leaned forward on her balcony, sighing. It seemed so much quieter now seeing that it was only just her and Rikku. She allowed the gentle cool breeze to subtly tickle her skin, wearing only a singlet and mini pajama shorts. It felt so boring now without the rest of the group.

Yuna laughed softly at herself for being so naive. _The group._What group? It was only because of camp that forced them to stay as a posse. But since everything was back to normal and since the rest of Tidus' group was back in the picture, there was just no room for her or Rikku. Everything was going to be the same once again. Tidus being the cocky, popular jock, while she'll remain as almost like a nobody at school. The clock struck nine o'clock just as Rikku's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Yunie, I'm going out now so I'm taking the car if that's alright with you."

"You're going out? What about me?"

Rikku giggled, "You silly head, I told you before I was going out and you said it was cool. And anyway, you could call up Tidus and ask him to go out with you if you really wanted to." She teased.

Yuna turned away from her as she felt her face heat up, "Okay okay, have fun then. And don't do anything too outrageous okay?"

Rikku simply nodded and bided her goodbye, once again leaving Yuna to her thoughts.

_'Yevon, what am I going to do all alone at home.'_

Sub-consciously, Yuna walked into her room, got changed into a knee length white skirt and a tight blue t-shirt, combed her hair neatly, applied soft make-up and left her apartment. She was going to venture the city alone.

------------------------------

"It's a goddamn Friday night, I have a social life too you know!"

"I don't give; Blitzball should be your number one priority regardless!"

"You gotta be fucking joking. I'm not like you old man, so just go piss yourself with beer for all I care!" Tidus retorted as anger got the better of him.

"At least I'm a fucking Pro at Blitzball you amateur!"

Since Tidus had come back from camp, Jecht had not stopped lecturing him about Blitzball lessons, Blitzball techniques and so forth. In actual fact, Tidus _did_ have a social life, a really big social life to be specific, but not tonight. He simply used that as an excuse for not training.

"I don't think being labeled the Blitz Ace is considered an amateur don't you think _dad?_" he countered back."Also, if you haven't noticed, it's nine at night. Isn't that a little, just a tad, late for Blitzball training?" sarcasm heavily detected with each word that came out of the blonde's mouth.

Tidus grabbed his car keys and put on a jacket before yelling out over his shoulder, "I'm going now!" as a maid opened one of the double doors for him.

------------------------------

It didn't take long for Yuna to arrive at the central of the metropolitan. It was filled with people yet at the same time if felt so spacious to her. It was absolutely beautiful. She had only moved to Zanarkand for a few months but she never got the opportunity to explore it since she was busy with her new school and her old job as a waitress. She walked through the streets, looking at the colorful yet non-blinding lights as they shone brightly in almost every direction. Kids were coming out of ice cream parlors with winning smiles on their faces whilst parents chatted mindlessly to other adults.

Loving couples walked hand in hand out of the cinemas and Yuna couldn't help but deeply admire them. How long was it since she was one of the mindless, carefree girls with a caring boyfriend? Too long. She shook her head to rid herself from self pity and continued walking down the streets. Who needs boyfriends anyways?

Her head was raised as she looked up at the tall modern buildings. It looked so incredibly different to Besaid as her hometown was mostly covered in the largest variety of greens even seen. Her head did not lower for a while until she accidentally knocked into someone.

------------------------------

He parked his still-scratched sports car on the 'outskirts' of the metropolitan, opting to walk instead of drive. It had been so long since he walked alone through Zanarkand, and he was grateful he had the chance to right now. He stuffed both his hands in his jeans pockets, looking around at the numerous people as he walked around aimlessly.

A few girls noticed him as the blitz ace and ran up to him for a signature. He however, would hush them, quietly asking them not to cause him any attention, but would still happily sign whatever it was they wanted him to sign with the exception of specific body parts.

He strolled around peacefully until a particular person entered his mind. Everywhere he looked, he couldn't get her out of his head, but then again, he wasn't too sure if he wanted to get her out of his head. Just as he was passing the cinemas, he looked at a happy couple walking out together, hands intertwined. He couldn't help but think of how lucky they both were to have someone they truly loved. He unconsciously wondered how it would feel to have Yuna as his girl-

But before he could finish his thoughts, he accidentally bumped into a smaller frame than his. He immediately looked at the person he bumped into and nearly jumped when he realized who it was. Her eyes finally found his and time just seemed to stop. They only felt the existence of each other. His cerulean blue eyes stared dreamily in her bi-colored eyes.

Finally after they both managed to snap out of their trance-like state, Tidus was the first to speak. "Yuna, what are you doing here?"

They were never like this before. When they first met, they would snap at each other. Then when they were at camp, they threw sarcastic remarks at each other. But now, now they didn't know what to do in front of each other. Everything seemed so awkward.

"Oh, um, Rikku went out with a few of her friends, so I decided to come out alone."

Tidus nodded as an awkward silence pierced through the night air.

"Um, what are you doing out here?" Yuna asked quickly.

"My old man was being a pain in the ass, so I figured some fresh air would do me good." He replied politely.

Another silence.

Quickly, Tidus took this opportunity to stay close to her, "Um, you want me to give you a tour around? Free of charge _and _I'm going to throw in a bonus."

Yuna cocked her head to the side, "Bonus?"

He smiled, "The bonus is having an extremely sexy and handsome guy as your tour guide." He joked.

Yuna giggled softly, looking around, "Really? Where? I don't see any sexy, handsome guy around." She replied jokingly, yet in a nice, polite manner.

"Oh come on, you know you want me."

Yuna's eyes widened instantly. It was only a joke and she knew that, but it was the truth. She really did want him. Immediately she blushed crimson red and the blonde noticed. He himself, for some unknown reason also blushed. Yevon, he never acted this way with girls, he was normally very smooth, but now, now he was a nervous wreck and he couldn't understand why.

"Um, you ready to go?" he asked awkwardly.

She nodded.

------------------------------

He took her around a few times until she was able to memorize the order of the shops. He hadn't meant to bore her, not that he did, but that was the only thing that allowed him to stay with her. There were a few long conversations mainly based on embarrassing moments for Tidus every time they passed a shop that reminded him of the scenario. But besides that, they walked around in silence, taking in the presence of each other.

As they strolled together outside the café for the fifth time that night, they both noticed a group of five girls pointing and giggling excitedly at Tidus.

"Oh shit." He mumbled.

Yuna glanced up at him and knew at once that he did not want to be recognized. The group of girls dressed in nothing but skimpy outfits walked seductively towards them as Tidus tried to act oblivious to them, hoping in vain that they would leave.

"Aren't you that sexy Blitzball player?" one of them asked.

"Tidus right?" another one questioned.

Tidus could do nothing but allow the girls to flirt like hell with him. He merely stood there, annoyed that they were taking up his precious time with Yuna. Suddenly he heard a voice different to all of theirs, it sounded more peaceful, more soothing.

"Um, actually, he's not." Tidus looked at Yuna in surprise at the words that just came out of her mouth.

The girls looked at her as if she were crazy, "What?"

Quickly, Yuna slid her hand in Tidus', "He's not a Blitzball player. I think you've all mistaken, he's my… my boyfriend." She said bravely.

Now the girls looked at her as if she was absurd yet at the same time disappointed, "Well, he probably isn't the blitz ace. I mean why would that stud go out with someone like her." One of them said to her other friends as she eyed her up and down.

Tidus would've bitch slapped her right then and there but he couldn't, he was frozen as soon as he felt the petite hand slip into his. He stood there dumbfounded as he stared down at their intertwined fingers. Holy crap did it feel good.

"Though you sure look exactly like him." Another of the slutty girls pointed out to Tidus.

"Well," Yuna shrugged, "I guess I'm just lucky hey?" and with that, the five girls left the two actors, well technically one.

As soon as they all disappeared into the distance, Yuna quickly slid her hand out of his grasp, much to his disappointment, and apologized. "Sorry, but I sorta felt that you didn't want them to recognize you so I-,"

"It's okay, you're right, I _didn't _want them to know who I really was, so… thanks." Throughout the whole sentence, he kept his eyes firmly locked on hers even though she was trying desperately to dodge them.

There was a moment of silence as Tidus drowned in her innocent beauty. _Who were those girls to judge Yuna?_ He thought to himself. _They could never compare to her. _But then again, all his previous girlfriends had been like one of those girls before.

"Um, I'm assuming you didn't drive, so do you want me to take you home?" he was really disappointed that the night had already come to its end but walking around continuously also wasn't a great idea.

She felt the disappointment hit her hard in the face, but masked it straight away, "Okay."

He mentally patted his back for parking so far away from the center of the metropolitan as they began walking towards the direction he was walking. It was already midnight but the place only seemed to get more crowded. They were forced to walk closer to each other but neither one complained. His hand brushed against Yuna's hand ever so softly and instantly they both felt a surge of energy run hastily up and down their arms. He suddenly had the urge to hold onto her hand once again but wasn't sure he was brave enough for it.

_'Yevon Tidus, what the hell is up with you? You never acted like this with other girls.'_

Tidus took a deep breath, mentally summoning all the courage he had. He looked the other direction as he bravely found her left hand with his right and quickly intertwined his fingers with hers, grasping her hand firmly and securely. Again he felt the pleasurable jolt of energy.

Suddenly feeling a hand holding onto hers, she quickly looked down to see that it was Tidus' tanned masculine hand. Her heart had suddenly increased its normal speed a zillion times as she glanced up at him only to see him looking in another direction. His crimson cheeks however, did not go by unseen. Yuna started to feel the heat gradually rise up to her face knowing that if he looked, the blush would be extremely obvious. She turned the other way, as she tightened the grip on his hand and smiled shyly to herself.

Tidus felt the pressure from her petite hand therefore averted his attention back on her. His knees nearly buckled when he saw her smiling like that and unbeknown to himself, a rare genuine smile appeared on his face. Yevon she was beautiful in Tidus' eyes.

Both smiling, they continued walking through the crowd towards their destination in silence. Disappointment hit him as his car came into view. It ended all too soon for the both of them. He walked her over to the passenger side and opened the door for her. Finally the dreaded arrived, he let her hand slide from his grasp. It suddenly felt so empty, so _wrong_. Dismissing the thought, he quickly walked over to the driver's seat and started the car. Not long later, they were on their way to Yuna's apartment.

Throughout the entire ride the car was filled with nothing but silence, only this time, it didn't seem so awkward. Tidus concentrated on the road, trying in vain not to get distracted by the presence of Yuna while Yuna herself diverted her attention to the blur outside the side window. Countless questions continuously popped up in Tidus' head but he found no answers to them.

"You can drop me off here." She pointed to the side of the street as they approached her apartment building.

To her surprise, as soon as he stopped, he also turned off his engine and looked at her. "Um, I'll walk you up."

All she did was smile and nod.

They both got out and Yuna simply stood there as she waited for Tidus to walk alongside her. He jogged around his car and paused momentarily before he took hold of Yuna's hand once again. She smiled up at him before they began making their way into the building.

Yevon was Tidus getting tired of everything ending so soon for him. Oblivious to both of them, they had already arrived outside of Yuna's apartment. She unlocked her door, opening it slightly before turning around to face Tidus.

"Thank-you for the tour, I really enjoyed it, although I was disappointed to not find my 'bonus'." She joked, "but you were the next best thing." She added quietly.

He chuckled a bit whilst rubbing the back of his neck, "Well I'm glad you enjoyed it."

She smiled, as Tidus had named it, her angelic smile. "Goodnight Tidus."

He was about to reply but was interrupted when he felt his heart suddenly stop and his breath caught in his throat. Yuna gently placed her hands on both sides of his neck and jaw line, went on her tippy toes and softly and briefly kissed him _just_ on the left corner of his lips. Shyly and quickly, she turned around without even looking at him and walked into her apartment, closing the door behind her and locking it.

For the umpteenth time that night, Tidus the chick magnet, the hot jock, the blitz ace stood there dumbfounded.

---------------------------------

An: Hello People! So how's the New Year been for you guys? Good? Hopefully! Anyways, hurl a review over here and you'll be on my 'You have made my day' list! Thank you!

SkyeLight


	12. Squall's Departure

**_Chapter 12_**

**_Squall's Departure_**

**_--------------------------------------_**

The cool night breeze traveled gently through the large room as the eerie glow of the full moon shone freely through the opened balcony doors. Everything was calm and tranquil that even a drop of a pin could be amplified into a glass cup crashing onto solid ground. With the moon as the natural source of light, a fraction of the room was intensely highlighted white whilst the rest of the room was merely covered by the glow it produced. With that, a restless figure was easily seen turning around numerous times before settling into a comfortable position on the double bed.

Sighing aloud for the umpteenth time that night, Tidus laid on his bare back with his right arm propped under his pillow whilst his left arm spread lazily across his toned abs. His blanket was pulled all the way down to his waistline where his cotton pajama pants could be seen slightly. Lying there for two hours and counting, there wasn't a moment where an image or a thought that consisted of Yuna did not enter his confused mind.

What perplexed him the most was that every time the thought of her entered his head, his heart felt as though it would fly. And that's never happened to him before. For the past two years, Tidus had attracted more girls than honey would attract bees, but yet again, not one of them made him as confused as he was right now. He always thought of himself as an expert with this topic, but now, he felt like a deer caught in headlights.

Above all thoughts, above all images, there was one particular thing that never faltered to cause a smile to form on the blonde Blitzer's face. The kiss… if you could call it that. It was so quick and soft that it might've made more sense to describe it as a mere peck. But whatever it was, it was breathtaking… literally.

_'Man, her lips were so soft and her hands, damn her hands were so smooth, it felt…' _Thinking for the most appropriate words, his years of education finally came to use, _'fucking great.'_

Again, a goofy smile stretched upon his face as he tried to recall the sensation of Yuna's cherry pink lips on his dry cracked ones. Subconsciously, his left hand traveled upwards until his fingers made subtle contact with his lips. However, this time, he allowed his mind to steer off track as he wondered about other possibilities. What if he had pulled her back? What if it was he, this time, who had kissed her? What if it wasn't just a shy peck, instead a full fledge kiss? What if she kissed back with the same amount of passion? What if..?

At this point Tidus couldn't continue anymore. Even without the presence of anyone his cheeks were burning and embarrassment overcame him. But in a good way. The goofy smile was no longer there; instead it had been upgraded to the point where his sparkling white teeth could be seen. The scenario he had created in his mind had made him so giddy that he did what girls would normally do when being questioned about 'boys'. He pulled his blanket over his head and started giggling. Yep, the almighty Tidus… giggling… under a blanket… over a GIRL!

And yes, if any of his guy friends knew about this, in no time he would be labeled as a 'Sissy.' But he didn't care; he loved this feeling too much to care. This feeling of warmth in his heart. This feeling of butterflies in his tummy. This feeling of excitement and being on top of the world… okay maybe not to that extent yet.

This feeling that only Yuna could make him feel.

Yevon did he want to see Yuna that very minute, even more, did he want to hold her in his arms. Well, there were a LOT more Tidus wanted to do with Yuna but _those_ thoughts could be saved for later, much later. Yuna was different, different to all the other girls he had ever dated or wanted to date. Getting girls back then for him was like a goal, a challenge. They were no more than attractive girls with model figures. Not Yuna, she was more, much more. All his previous girlfriends didn't have what Yuna has. Personality.

Just as he was _still_ thinking about the girl that makes his heart flutter, the loud rings of the telephone not only made him snap out of his reverie but also made him jump.

_'Who the fuck can be calling at 3 in the mor- Yevon! What if it's Yuna? What if she wants to say that the kiss was just a joke? I knew this was too good to be true. Quick, just pick the phone up before it wakes Jecht up and then he'll answer it. Then he'll know it's Yuna and start pestering me with dumbass questions and lecture me about shit and how girls would interfere with Blitzball blah blah blah. Damn, the old man just pisses me off so much! I would hit him if he was right here right now then I'd-.'_

_'JUST SHUT UP AND PICK THE GODDAMN PHONE UP!'_

_'Right!__ The phone.' _Just as he was reaching out towards the phone situated on his bedside tablehe paused briefly, _'Wait wait wait. Put on your sexy voice just in case it's Yuna!'_

And with that out of the way, he lunged for the phone. Clearing his throat slightly he said, "Hello?" in a deep, husky and seductive voice. His heart was beating so fast he thought it would jump out of his chest.

"… Shit, is that you Tidus?"

He felt his face grow hot as he started choking rapidly on the phone. "S-Squall?"

"Who'd you think it was? Someone calling on those sex lines?"

------------------------------

"Did you get it? Did you get it?"

"Yes yes yes! Gees! Here." Lulu cried, handing Squall a packet of jelly beans.

Grabbing it from her grasp, Squall held the shiny blue packet close to his heart as he sighed in relief. Tidus and Wakka slowly backed away from Squall after seeing his melodramatic reaction to the miniature sized chewy substances.

"What?" Squall rolled his eyes, "Oh yeah, like you don't know how much my ears kill when the plane is rising or landing."

"Nah, yeah we do!" Tidus replied yet still jokingly backing away, "But you know, we don't really want to be seen with some cra-,"

"OUCH! Watch it Tidus! My toes!"

"Shit, sorry Rikku." He mumbled, stumbling to turn around.

Tidus looked behind the petite blonde before his eyes searched every direction until they landed back on her. "So um, come here alone?"

"Well because I got the call so late at night from Lulu I couldn't-,"

"Look where's Yuna?" Tidus interrupted.

"Nice to see you too," Rikku mumbled sarcastically, "Yuna couldn't make it 'cause she has this job interview that she's been waiting for like, three months." Rikku shrugged, "But Squall knows already, right Squall?"

"What? Oh yeah, yeah I do. Anyway I have to get going now so take care kiddos."

In a rush, Rikku and Lulu hurriedly walked over to Squall giving him a quick hug, "Take care Squall and come back soon!"

"Yeah I will, I'll come back right after my aunt gets better… a lot better actually." He said more to himself than to the group with the after thought. "It'll be soon so stop worrying." Squall reassured.

"I'm gonna miss you so much." Rikku muffled against his jacket.

"Alright alright, get off already." Squall laughed as he patted her on the head. "Stay outta trouble okay?"

"Pssh, try telling that to Tidus. He's the crazy rabbit when it comes to Yuna." She giggled.

"….. Did someone say my name?" Tidus asked, clueless as ever.

------------------------------

Monday Morning – First period

"That's it! The next person to fall asleep on me will see me after school today. Got it?!" the teacher boomed, slamming a book down on the table with the intention of waking several students.

Fifteen minutes into the class and already nearly half the class had fallen asleep due to lack of rest from the previous week. Yuna nervously fidgeted with her pencil whilst her different colored eyes continuously glanced at the door. Every time the door creaked, Yuna's head would shoot up only to be greeted by the wind. Her spirits were beginning to fall as minute after minute gradually went by without the existence of another fellow classmate.

The female teacher's voice continued to boom across the room, oblivious to the fact that another three students had fallen into a peaceful realm of slumber. Yuna noticed that her voice was unusually low which made her question if the teacher was a transsexual. The question amused her so much that she accidentally let out a fit of giggles. Crap!

"Miss Yuna, may I ask you what is so funny?"

"I… um.. well-,"

"Morning Ms Mann. Sorry, slept in." Tidus yawned, interrupting the little interrogation.

She gave him a little glare before continuing her lecture. Yuna made sure to keep her face low as she knew her face was burning red from the embarrassment. As Tidus walked down the classroom, he kept his eyes firmly on the petite brunette, ignoring the other dozen sets of eyes on him. It took him.5 seconds to realize that the only seat left in the room was a seat away from Yuna, so he grudgingly sat down.

Yuna pretended to seem interested in what the teacher was saying, therefore acted as though she was taking down notes. Her heart was beating even more rapidly when in the corner of her eyes she noticed that Tidus had tapped the guy sitting next to her on his shoulder and whispered something. Trying to act as though she was unaware of the whole situation she continued _taking down notes_. In a matter of seconds, the guy willingly nodded before he got up and swapped seats with Tidus.

The blonde blitzer coolly sat down, subtly shifting his table closer to Yuna's. Against her own will, Yuna glanced up to see a set of ocean blue eyes staring straight at her. As fast as the speed of light, the blood in her body immediately rushed upwards to her face before she could hide it. Looking back at her notes, she winced in embarrassment. She heard Tidus chuckle but still refused to look up.

"Reciting the alphabet?"

Tidus had leaned in so close to her that his nose had brushed softly against her thin brown hair.

_'Reciting the alphabet? What's he talking about?'_

Then it hit her, she looked down at her A4 note pad and mentally kicked herself, "Oh my gosh." She whispered to herself. Throughout this whole time she had written out the alphabet six and a half times.

_'Wow Yuna, you've never been so good at embarrassing yourself. Geez you deserve a pat on the back.'_

"So how was the job interview?" he whispered, deliberately leaning in extremely close to Yuna.

Feeling a shiver run hastily up her spine, she unwillingly let out a little tremble. Once again she heard the low snicker coming from Tidus, the culprit to all her embarrassing and nerve racking encounters this morning.

_'Why are you so nervous around him? Gosh I knew that kiss was a mistake. I don't even like him so why am I so nervous? Just breath and act normal. Just act like a bitch towards him so that everything would be back to normal. Okay so that's the plan, just act like you're top sh-,"_

"I'm judging from your silence that it wasn't too good?"

"Um, no not really." She whispered back timidly.

_'Yep that sounded like a bitch alright. Keep this up and he might even think of you as a chicken. Wow, think of that, what an improvement. Really, well done Yuna!'_

She winced again as her plan just went down the drain.

"Not really as in 'No, it was good,'" Tidus mimicked in a girly voice, "or 'No it sucked shit?"

At this, Yuna couldn't help but let out another fit of giggles, "The second one."

The flirtatious blonde smiled as he finally leaned back in his seat.

_'That went well.'_

------------------------------

"So Yunie, what's on your mind?"

"Nothing in particular, why?"

"Well you've been a bit quiet, so something must be up, spill it already!" Rikku continued as she and Lulu stood patiently by Yuna's locker, waiting for both her response and for her to finish collecting her books.

"Look it's nothing, so can we just…" Yuna finally closed her locker just in time to see Tidus standing behind the blonde and raven haired ladies.

"Hi."

Rikku and Lulu immediately turned around to the sound of a familiar voice, "Tidus, hey, what brings you here?" Lulu asked.

He scratched the back of his head out of habit before replying, "Um, Yuna, can I talk to you after school?"

Both heads turned to Yuna, anxiously waiting for her reponse, "… sure."

Tidus let out a sigh of relief, "Great, I'll see you then!"

As he walked down the corridor, countless girls did their daily ritual with him, bat their lashes, shift their skirts to reveal more leg or giggled loudly. Today however, there were also many girls who sulked around or even worse spent the whole day crying due to Squall's departure.

"Oh.. My… Gosh… Is there something we should know about Yunie?" Rikku asked whilst wriggling her eyebrows up and down suggestively.

"Oh look at the time, I have to get going now." Yuna quickly turned around before Rikku could grab onto her and made a mad dash to fifth period.

------------------------------

"Okay please tell me you're all on crack because honestly, that was a disgrace. So tell me for the love of Yevon that at least three quarters of you are on crack!"

The blitzball team remained silent.

"So you're telling me we dragged your sorry asses back from camp just to have you slack offs give me this shitty performance?!"

Silence.

"OH HOLY MOTHER OF FRICKIN YEVON!" He slapped his forehead.

"Does anyone by any chance have any bullets?" he groaned, rubbing his temples.

"… Why?" a voice questioned.

"Oh nothing," he replied with an overly sweet smile, "You see I have a gun but it seems to me that I forgot the ammo," He continued smiling like he was talking to a child, "Now if any one of you adorable little shits just so happen to have bullets with you, let me know. I'd like to shoot myself sometime today."

The entire Blitzball team rolled their eyes at his overreaction.

"Auron, we just came back. We haven't trained in a while. It's a Monday. Give us a break!"

"Shut up Tidus! You above all should know better."

"And you above all should do a better job at coaching." He mumbled.

"I heard that!" He looked at everyone, "Your defence was appalling, your accuracy of catching and throwing was beyond disgusting and…IN FACT does _anyone_ of you's have enough bullets to shoot all of you in the head 'cause I can certainly do with that."

"Shut up with the shooting already. Can we go yet? School's about finished."

Grunting, Auron replied, "Yeah yeah, but I expect so see real Blitzball players tomorrow, not the sissys like today."

With that, everyone got off their seats from the stadium and made their way to the exit.

"AND IF ANYONE HAS ANY AMMO AT HOME, REMEMBER TO BRING IT NEXT LESSON!" Auron cried before they left.

"SHUT UP!" was the response he got from his team.

"pfft, whatever."

------------------------------

Slamming his locker shut, Tidus quickly made his way to the car park where he thought he had told Yuna to meet him. With this hair still wet from a long session of Blitzball training, he shook his head slightly as he jogged his way through a pretty deserted hallway. Just as he was nearing the exit a hand stopped him from getting to his destination. He turned around to the feel of a soft hand wrapped firmly around his forearm before his eyes met a pair of hazel colored ones.

"Myleena!" He cried somewhat anxiously as he was eager to go see Yuna and confess his… Like… for her.

"Hey." She whispered back in a soft sad voice.

Turning around fully, Tidus let a little frown spread upon his face wondering why the girl in front of him was acting so unusual, "Is something wrong?"

"I… don't worry about it, you wouldn't even care." She started to turn away but Tidus stopped her.

"What do you mean I wouldn't care, you're like a sister to me."

"Sister?" She repeated, "Sister. I don't want to be your sister Tidus. Don't you get it?! I want to be your girl. I want you to be my boyfriend! Can't you see that?!"

Tidus merely stood there dumbfounded by her sudden outburst. He was expecting something along the lines of her feeling sick, but luck wasn't on his side today.

"I've known you so much longer than she has, so what is it that she has that I don't, because quite frankly everyone knows I'm the better looking one out of me and her!"

Tidus knew immediately who she was talking about, "Look Myleena, it's not about that. I've just never thought of you anymore than a sibling. I'm really sorry Myleena, I don't know what else I could say to make this easier for the both of us."

------------------------------

_'Was it just me or did Tidus not tell me where I was suppose to meet him?'_

Yuna thought as her feet gradually led her down a hallway. The school was starting to get deserted as everyone was dismissed about fifteen minutes ago.

_'I wonder what he wants to talk to me about?'_

Although she didn't know what exactly this little meeting of theirs was for, she couldn't help but allow the outer corners of her small mouth to lift upwards.

------------------------------

"I know a lot of things you could say to make things easier for the both of us."

"Myleena, I know you want to hear those words, and I could say it."

Within that split second her face lifted up one hundred notches.

"Yes, I could say it so easily..."

"So why don't you just-,"

"But I wouldn't mean any of it." He finished firmly.

"What? What are you-,"

He interrupted her again, "There is only one girl I can think, no, I know that I could say those three words to and mean it, and I'm sure you know who it is as well."

"… I see." She whispered, "Then there is just one last thing I want to ask you."

He waited.

"Could I have a kiss from you?"

His eyes widened from that unexpected request, "Um, Myleena I don't think that-," but before he could finish his sentence, she quickly grabbed him by the neck and pulled him down, her lips meeting his.

Before he got the chance to push her away, she let go and pulled away from him. He was about to yell at her for that behavior but his eyes fell upon a figure that made his blood cold, his body freeze and heart stop.

Her fist were tightly balled up as her entire body softly shook. She did not say anything. Her eyes did not leave his. Her body did not move… but her heart was shattering. Her facial expression spelt out 'Betrayal and hurt' and Tidus read it, clear as crystal. She had told herself numerous times today that she had no feelings for Tidus, that she did not like him one bit, that he was a jerk, that the kiss was simply a gesture of thanks, that she wasn't anticipating to see him throughout the weekend… so why did her heart feel like it had just been pulled out, stomped upon before being ripped apart?

She couldn't understand why, but her eyes were starting to sting. She knew if she stood there any longer she would regret it so she abruptly turned around and starting walking away.

Tidus didn't know what to do. All he knew was that he didn't like what he was feeling, the feeling of Yuna hating him, the feeling of Yuna hurt, but most of all, the feeling of knowing it was he who had hurt Yuna. As soon as he saw Yuna turn around and leave, he didn't give a shit if he was going to make matters worse, it was a risk he was willing to take. Without thinking, he hastily pulled away from Myleena and made a run towards Yuna.

"Yuna." He called, grabbing her arm gently to turn her around.

"It's not what you think it is." He explained urgently.

It wasn't like he was tired but for some reason he was panting, either from nervousness or anxiousness he didn't know… he didn't care.

There was a brief silence, "What makes you think I care?" Yuna softly hissed back, trying to sound strong and unaffected, but it only amplified the hurt in her.

"What makes me think you care? By the way you look, the way you're acting right now! That's what makes me think you care!!"

"Well you're wrong, I don't care. So don't mind me, you can go back and continue with whatever it was you were doing." The words were spoken calmly yet that only increased the level of pain evident in her voice. With that she turned, only to be pulled back by Tidus whose hand had not left her yet.

"Yuna believe me, what you saw, it was an accident, a mistake! I don't like her that way!" his voice was getting louder as frustration was starting to get to him from looking at Yuna's unbelieving expression.

The anger was mostly directed at himself as he found difficulty in expressing his feelings.

Yuna laughed bitterly, "You know, I actually led myself to believe that you've actually changed. Now I've realized how stupid I was." She replied cruelly.

Tidus finally let go of her arm, "What's that suppose to mean?" he asked, this time unable to hide the hurt in his voice.

"That means," her voice uncontrollably shaky, "that you haven't changed a bit. You're still the _spoilt_, _arrogant, inconsiderate _Tidus I met when you first walked into that class." She clearly articulated the three cruel and false words to Tidus. Her voice was still unusually calm but as she spoke, her words became more cruel, "All along I thought you were the one that had played all those pranks on me, up until a few days ago when I thought you had changed. But now I know, I know that it _was _you… Do you hate me that much? Do I bother you that much to the point where you feel the need to waste _your _time on something as petty as me?" she finished her taunting.

Tidus shook his head, "I **don't **hate you. I didn't pull those pranks on you and you're not petty. Yeah I admit I was probably once like that. But I changed Yuna, I changed because of _you_… But it doesn't seem as though you've noticed nor cared."

"No, you haven't changed, because if you did, I wouldn't of have to witness that before… another prank I'm assuming. Why? Is it fun to see my hopes crushed?" Finally she allowed her speaking volume to intensify, "Because if it is just say so, I'll get out of your face altogether if my presence upsets you this greatly." Yuna stated before she turned and walked away, this time no one stopping her, this time letting her tears fall.

Tidus merely stood there. No words could do justice to the anger, the loss, the frustration, but most of all, the hurt that was eating away at him.

Everything was right again. Everything was going according to plan. Myleena smirked.

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An: Come on guys, let's go egg Myleena!!!!! Anyway I would just like to say a big **SORRRRRRYYYYY** for taking me this darn long to update a damn chapter!! I just wasn't really inspired for a while, but worry not because regardless of how lazy I get I guarantee you readers out there that my next chapter will NOT take this long to update!! Anyway I hope this chapter has satisfied you guys for the time being! So give me a review and although we know Myleena's a !#$&!#$&!#$& bitc let us review in peace and avoid any murderous thoughts. :D 'Till next time (Hopefully soon)

Also I'd just like to say that the reviews have played a big part in helping me get on my computer and typing up the next chapter, so thanks to every reader and reviewer.

One more also: I mentioned before in previous chapters that this fic will **NOT **be discontinued till the very end! I plan to stick to it. So if ever I take a while to update, assume that I'm just being lazy because I have no intentions of giving up on this fic!! (What a long note, sorry bout that


	13. Seymour's Arrival

**_Chapter 13_**

**_Seymour_****_'s arrival_**

**_-------------------------------------------_**

_"Why? Is it fun to see my hopes crushed?"_

Yuna's nails dug deeper into the cushion as she inwardly cringed at her own comment that occurred not long enough ago. Had she really said that out loud? Hopes? What hopes? Even if she did have hopes, _he _wasn't suppose to hear or know about it. A thousand thoughts sprinted through her head whilst too many emotions squeezed at her heart. Cry? She did that all ready and she was determined not to shed another tear on _him_. Laugh? She wanted to laugh at her own stupidity for thinking that he was a changed person, or more so, that _she _was the one who made him that 'changed person'. Scream? She wanted to scream out her inward frustrations. Why was this bothering her more than it should? Why the feeling of betrayal? Why the feeling of hurt? And most of all, why the feeling of doubt?

As the television presented itself with all its glory, it sadly went by unnoticed as Yuna's mind focused on anything _but _the T.V. The scenario replayed itself in Yuna's head for the umpteenth time that night, and the more she thought about it, the more she started to believe in Tidus' words. His arms weren't even around her, and his body gestures did show of one being caught off guard.

_'No! The fact of the matter is, you saw with your own two eyes that they were kissing. Don't open yourself up to be a fool. Don't open yourself up to be hurt again. Not again. Save yourself from all the unnecessary pain.'_

Yuna closed her eyes in a vain attempt to block out anymore incoming thoughts. She was satisfied with the way she was thinking now. Yes, hate him. It was the easiest way out. All along she had held up a barrier around herself, shielding her emotions from being toyed with. For so long now, she had _taught _herself to be cautious with Tidus, to display a feeling of dislike towards him, and there was no way in hell she was going to let herself believe that all her efforts had betrayed her as well.

Little did she know, a feeling can not be taught, it had to be felt. And she did not feel it.

Finally, her attention was drawn to the electronic box in front of her. It was some kind of soap opera, she realized, a soap opera that was… mocking her.

"We belong together." The tall handsome brunette from the soapie breathed out dramatically.

The beautiful girl's perfectly made up face looked up at her male acquaintance before replying, "I love you."

Yuna lazily slid off the two seater couch and hesitantly made her way to her bathroom. Her bi-colored eyes gazed back at identical ones as she stared at her own reflection. Unknowingly, her hand reached up to touch the side of her face as she shook her head gently, trying to let her hair fall in a more natural style. But her attempt only proved ineffective, coming to the conclusion that she was just another ordinary fish in the ocean compared to Myleena.

_'Are beautiful people only meant for other beautiful people?'_

"YUNIE!"

Clearing her throat slightly, Yuna yelled back weakly at her clueless cousin, "What?"

"PHONE CALL!" her shrill voice boomed through the entire apartment.

Grudgingly, Yuna made her way to the kitchen, which was right next to the lounge, not once questioning who would be looking for her. As she reached her destination, she mentally noted not to touch that particular flavoured chips as Rikku hungrily licked her fingers before diving it pack into the packet whilst, reading a magazine on one of the kitchen stools.

The brunette picked up the phone on the kitchen counter, placing it against her cheek.

"Hello?" Yuna spoke with the least bit of interest.

"YUNIE?! Guess who this is?! Oh never mind, you know all ready. I'm way too important to be forgotten. Guess who's coming to give you and Rikku a little visit? Don't know? Well it's, are you ready for it? Me, Catherine and your daddy! We'll arrive tomorrow afternoon! See ya soon gorgeous!"

And it hung up.

Yuna didn't even get a chance to utter a sound as she stood there dumbfounded with the phone still next to her ear.

------------------------------

"Move it! Have you people not eaten today yet?!"

Auron's voice roared through the stadium as everyone once again picked up on their pace with whatever training they were doing. Oblivious to Auron's words, Tidus remained viciously throwing the ball towards Wakka who, without a doubt, noticed Tidus' change of behavior ever since their training started a good half hour ago. As 'big' as Wakka may seem, the ferocity and the intense look in Tidus' eyes shook him slightly. Sure he had seem him like this before, but it was now that the Besaidian had finally decided that he will never get use to it. He caught the ball weakly but never did he falter to keep his guard up. Judging from the speed and force from Tidus' attack techniques, if he wasn't careful, he could seriously get injured.

To the naked eye, Tidus, the star player, was doing what others expected him, someone of his status, to be doing. Give it everything you've got. Prepare yourself to the fullest. Victory is everything.

Those were the thoughts that were _suppose_ to be running through the blonde's head, but instead, it was clouded by anything but Blitzball. Everything throw represented an inner thought. All the force signified an inner emotion. All the fierceness was a release of anger, frustration… hate... **WHATEVER**!

As ball after ball was passed to him by another fellow teammate, he would find relief in that split second where he found the opportunity to release the steam in him. But as the blitzball spins out of his grasp and another ball comes speeding his way, in comes all the emotions again, flooding his senses. He couldn't believe it, even Blitzball, his childhood pal, was mocking him. Every time he found solace when discharging his anger, another ball would be thrown back _at him_, just like the anger re-entering him. The feelings never really leaving, only a vain and childish attempt to run away from his problems.

With that thought, Tidus' eyes squinted even more, gritting his teeth as all his inner emotions finally burst, flooding every nerve and vein in his body. Catching the ball with precision, Tidus' body stretched as he prepared himself for _just another_ attack at Wakka, or so he thought. As his back arched in order to add more force into the attack, Wakka's eyes widened, "Hey Brudda sett-," before the oranged-hair besadian could finish, the blitzball went ripping through the water as it landed square on Wakka's abdomen.

The impact of it all was so great that it sent Wakka flying out the sphere faster than the eye could follow. Sudden realization dawned on Tidus that his throws were more than Wakka could take as the blonde immediately snapped out of his reverie. Whilst doing so, concentration was lost.

"Tidus!"

Just like Wakka's fate, the next minute, Tidus was thrown out of the water sphere, landing on one of the benches not far from his injured friend. He had seen the ball coming, yet he did nothing to stop his fall. His energy was finally drained and his anger finally deteriorated. He ran a hand down his face before he felt someone collapse onto the seat next to him. He vaguely heard someone shout out an apology at him but did nothing to show acknowledgement of it.

Sighing, he began, "Sorry, didn't know I had it in me. Guess I'm stronger than I thought I was." Tidus forcefully chuckled.

Wakka gave him a look, "Don't be laughing and pretending everything is okay. I saw you inside the sphere. What the hell is up with you today brudda?"

"Yeah. What the hell _is _up with you today?"

The two Blitzballers looked up to see Auron standing over them with a look that could kill.

"Sorry coach I ju-," Tidus tiredly started.

"Don't sorry me son!" Auron snapped, "I don't give a shit if you're the best player, if you go putting one of my _other _best players at risk, don't expect to be in the tournament."

"Coach it's-,"

"Shut up Wakka!" Auron snapped. "When you're in the sphere, nothing else matters but Blitzball. Tidus, I could not careless if Jecht gave you another piece of his mind or if you didn't get to screw that chick last night, but I **DO **care if you let these things interrupt yours and the rest of the team's training. Do this again, and I will be seeing my old pal again, got it?"

Without waiting for a reply, he stormed off. They both knew that by 'old pal', he meant Jecht, after all, they were on the same team once upon a time ago.

"Shit Tidus, he may seem crazy at times, but mark my words, he will do it. He'll suspend you from playing if you don't get your act together soon."

Tidus remained silent with his head down, clearly looking overworked.

"Just be careful brudda." And with that, Wakka got off the bench and limped his way to the change rooms.

_'Pull it together man. If Yuna sees you like this she'll-'_

Halting all of a sudden, Tidus shook his head and chuckled bitterly, _'Like she cares.'_

------------------------------

Yuna fidgeted in her bed, paying no attention whatsoever to the book in her hands. She continuously glanced at the clock placed on her bedside table. 2.30pm. Closing her eyes in annoyance she averted her attention back to the book. It would be another hour before _they _arrived. Another hour before all hell broke loose. Another hour before Tidus was let out of school. Immediately her back straightened.

_'Where did that come from?... Did he realize that I didn't go to school today?'_

Yuna had decided to stay home for the day with the, as Rikku had called it, pathetic excuse that her father was coming to visit. She argued back that it would take time to clean the apartment up and other preparations that she just couldn't voice out. Of course Rikku still had not detected the difference in Yuna's demeanor and therefore simply gave her the 'yeah, I don't believe you for a second' nod before leaving Yuna to her sanctuary. Had Rikku known about the incident, she would've at least been able to guess, by the bags under Yuna's eyes, that she had stayed up the whole night contemplating whether to believe Tidus or not. As a result, Yuna opted to believe what she wanted yet at the same time knew that it was anything but the truth and she was only sub-consciously lying to herself… in English: She was still pissed off at him. Placing the book on her lap, she took a peak at the clock again.

2.33pm.

_'Oh to hell with this.'_

Yuna tossed the book aside as she got off the bed, in search for her jeans.

_'I'll just drive really slowly to the docks. Just anything to get outta here.'_

Briefly writing a note to Rikku to meet her at the docks, Yuna left the apartment. The clock read 2.44pm.

------------------------------

"Hey Tidus." A girl seductively said as Tidus walked past her.

"Hey sexy." The blonde smirked back.

Confidently strolling to his last class, Tidus made sure to look his best, knowing that many pairs of eyes were glued to him. Gripping his worn out books tightly, he subtly took a deep breath before walking into the half filled class. As soon as he reached his table, his carefree attitude immediately disappeared, and was now replaced with a solemn expression. For the entire day after Blitz practice, Tidus had tried so hard to remain indifferent, that unknowingly, his acting had worn him out. He felt exhausted at having to smile even though that was the last thing he felt like doing, at having to laugh even though nothing could've been funny to him today, at having to seem unfazed by the fact that Yuna had not showed up at school. He missed her. He missed her… A LOT.

For some reason, Tidus had decided to avoid both the girls today and only approached Rikku to ask where Yuna was after he couldn't take any more of his inner debates. It felt like a boulder had been lifted off his shoulders when Rikku replied with a "Oh, her daddy's coming to visit, so she's a bit busy." At least he knew that he wasn't the reason as to why she stayed at home.

His blue eyes glanced up when the teacher walked in, but his mind was so filled with other thoughts that the presence of the teacher hardly registered. He had no friends with him in this class, and for once, he was grateful for it. He needed the time alone, he needed a break from all the pointless acting. Looking down at his blank piece of white paper, he remembered the incident that seemed too long ago.

_"Reciting the alphabet?"_

He suddenly felt a tight squeeze at his heart at the thought. How could so much have changed within one day. One _fucking_ day. He hated this. He hated knowing that he had hurt Yuna. Hated the fact that Yuna was angry at him. Hated this feeling of incredible emptiness. The whole day he tried to look good simply so that people would not be able to detect what he was truly feeling inside, however, he knew that when Yuna was around, he tried to look good for _her _to see. Unlike Yuna, he willingly admitted that this bothered him. He was unashamed that Yuna had this great of an impact on him. After all, she was his first. First girl he had truly fallen for.

His eyes widened. _'What?'_

It was now that he finally realized, Yuna was the one for him. _Was_.

Shaking his head slightly, he decided that he was going to do something to ease her pain. Anything to make this all better. Yes, he was doing this for her _and_ for himself.

…But what?

------------------------------

"Babe, it's not my fault that I have beautiful hair okay? I'm just gifted alright?"

"Okay okay, but _please _just try not to get any hair gel on my seats." Yuna begged.

"Seymour," Rikku began, "ever considered cutting your hair?" she asked, fingering the long purple strands.

"Hey hey hey!" He exclaimed, trying to pry her hands away from his hair.

"Look, when did my dad change the date to exactly?" the brunette driver asked as she stopped at a red light.

"I can't really remember, it was all so rushed. I was bored out of my brains when it turned out to just be me on the boat by myself. Why they suddenly backed out is beyond me." Seymour stated before he resumed back to looking at his reflection through the car mirror.

"So girls," Seymour clapped, turning to face Yuna and glanced at Rikku, "Miss me?"

No reply.

"I feel the love, no really, I do. No, don't even try to convince me that I matter. No stop, just stop, really, you guys are just too overwhelming." The purple haired man spat out sarcastically.

"OKAY OKAY. Yevon. We missed you all right?" Yuna spat back with the least bit of sincerity.

Smirking, he replied, "Figured. So Riks, I can call you that right?"

Missing the look of disgust on Rikku's face he continued, "Got yourself a man yet?"

"Come to think of it, have you EVER had a boyfriend. The last time I saw you, you were single. The last time I saw you before the last time, you were single. I mean I would help but there are just so little men going around now. I mean, they're precious things you know, gotta treat them right. In fact, I think that male species are starting to decrease. Gees, now that I think of it, I'm kinda worried, I mean what if…"

After knowing Seymour ever since pre-school, they had learned the technique of drowning out his voice which they were ever so grateful for. Sometimes he would talk so much that he wouldn't even realize that no one ever responded.

As Yuna continued driving, she quickly glanced black at Rikku through the mirror to see what she was doing. Yuna's eyes widened slightly when she noticed that Rikku was actually paying attention to Seymour's babbling, although he on the other hand did little to acknowledge his audience. Shaking her slightly, she kept her eyes firmly on the road as they were nearing their apartment. Vaguely she was able to hear where Seymour was up to in his conversation.

"… Watermelons. YES! Watermelons. They are like watermelons, hard on the outside and soft on the inside. I guess watermelons are kinda soft on the inside… well maybe not watermelons, maybe something like…"

Yuna couldn't help but giggle as she left him to contemplate what other types of fruit had a hard outer shell and a soft inside. Turning the last turn, Yuna smiled out of relief as she saw her apartment come into view. Stepping on the peddle a little harder, Yuna drove speedily down the rest of the street before sharply turning into her carpark.

"HERE!" The brunette accidentally shouted.

Seymour suddenly paused from his one on one conversation and looked at Yuna.

"Um, We're here. Our apartment!"

"Oh." Seymour said, giving his head a little tilt, "I'll continue this when we get in Riks."

Nodding her head enthusiastically whilst getting out of the car, Rikku responded, "Yep. Don't forget where we're up to!"

Yuna was so occupied with unloading Seymour's bags that she failed to notice a familiar figure with his car parked against the other side of the wall.

Slowly, almost hesitantly, the figure walked towards Yuna, grasping something tightly in his palm.

As if sensing someone approaching, Yuna turned her head around before accidentally dropping two of Seymour's luggage.

Blue eyes met her bi-coloured ones as they both just stood a few feet apart from each other.

"Hey Yuni- TIDUS! Hey what are you doing here?" Rikku asked excitedly, breaking the two from their sacred moment.

He was about to reply when, Seymour, who was oblivious to Tidus' sudden presence yelled out to Yuna, "Hey babe, hurry up, I need to put all this heavy stuff in your room, remember!"

Yuna quickly diverted her attention back to Tidus as she was suddenly overwhelmed by panic. Her heart nearly cried as she saw the look of confusion, lost and hurt on Tidus' face. Almost like a little child being scolded for a reason he didn't know of. Looking back at Yuna, he snapped out of his trance and looked around awkwardly before uneasily walking towards Yuna. Not looking at her, he grabbed her right hand and placed a folded piece of paper into her palm. Taking one last look at her, and even though the look didn't not last for long, it clearly showed the longing and sadness in him.

Without a word, he turned around, leaving Rikku utterly confused and somewhat shocked. Finally, just as Seymour was about to express his displeasure with the long wait, his attention was finally drawn to Tidus' retreating back. Dropping his bags almost immediately, he sprinted towards Tidus.

"Hi!"

Surprised and a little taken back, Tidus merely managed a smile and a 'hi' in return.

"You must be Yunie's friend. I'm Seymour!"

_'Yunie.__ Well that confirms that they're surely close.'_

"Uh," Tidus glanced back at the still dumbfounded Yuna before looking back at Seymour, "yeah, you can say that. I'm Tidus. I uh, kinda havta get going."

He felt like he was suffocating. He had to get out of here. Without waiting for a reply, Tidus got into the safety of his car and sped off, leaving Seymour waving him goodbye from the parking lot.

Yuna remained standing frozen next to the car, watching with unblinking eyes as his scratched car left her. Rikku didn't know what happened, but without a doubt, she knew something wasn't right with the two.

"Anyhoo." Seymour said, spinning around with a stupid smile on his face, "where were we Riks?" he asked as he lifted his abandoned luggage once again, making his way into the apartment.

------------------------------

After Rikku had called it a night, she retired back into her bedroom, leaving Seymour and Yuna alone in the small lounge room. Glancing at Yuna, Seymour smirked, "Boy was that Tidus a looker!"

Yuna remained quiet, just like she had been throughout the night.

Seymour continued, "Nice strong build as well."

Nothing.

"SO! What did he give you?"

This Yuna was surprised. How did Seymour know? Wasn't he too occupied with his luggage?

The purple haired man chuckled, "I have a sixth sense with this sorta stuff, now spill it."

In actually fact, Yuna herself had not read it, "What? This?" she asked, pulling the piece of paper out of her pants pocket.

Her companion nodded.

"I don't know. Nothing important." She announced as she made her way to the kitchen and carelessly put it in her recycling bin.

"Well, it's pretty late and I have school tomorrow… so…"

"Yes yes, I get your point. So my bed's in Riks' room?"

"Yeah, careful not to wake her up when you walk in. She's really…dangerous."

Laughing quietly, he nodded, "Right. G'night gorgeous." He said softly, kissing the roof of her head and exiting the lounge.

After getting himself in a comfortable position in his inflatable bed, he waited for Yuna to enter her own room. Minutes went by and still he heard shuffling around, but he was a patient man. He would wait.

Finally, all the lights were switched off and the soft sound of Yuna's door closing was heard. With that, he remained still for a few more minutes, making sure that Yuna was definitely not going to walk back out to the kitchen. Ensured that the coast was clear, he cautiously slid off his 'bed' and tip toed out of the room.

A string of light curses slipped from his mouth as his left foot continuously made contact with objects in their home. He smartly chose to switch on the stove's light instead of the kitchen light to avoid being caught.

Searching through the plastic bag, he finally found it, only this time, it was all ready unfolded. He smirked to himself and asked sarcastically.

_'How can a piece of paper unfold itself. How can it unfold itself FOUR times.'_

Taking a quick glance at the note, Seymour smiled.

_'My Yunie's growing up.'_

Folding the paper four times, he placed it in his Pajama pocket and walked back into his room after switching off the light.

_'She'll thank me later for this.'_

------------------------------

Just before slumber claimed the exhausted soul, four words were imprinted in her mind and… heart. _I'm not giving up._

------------------------------

AN: Hi people!! Just like to say that I have re-read my entire fic and let me just say that I now have wrinkles around my eyes from the amount of cringing I did from reading chapters 1-10. 11 onwards are okay, but the others are just disappointing. So let me make it clear here… DO NOT read those chapters. And I am not doing the reverse psychology mumbo jumbo. If you have forgotten the story, I will post the summary of chapters 1-10 on my bio page. Thanks

On a side note, I plan to finish this story by this year so expect more frequent updates from now on. I believe I will be starting a new fic soon. Maybe when chapter 14 comes out for 'Changing me'.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS!!!!!!!! Very nice, sweet and inspiring.

SkyeLight


	14. If only he knew

**_Chapter 14_**

**_If only he knew_**

-------------------------------------

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry. I just couldn't get out of it. My boss is being a major bitc- uh I mean… Look! My column is just about finished, I promise we'll be there _very _soon. Let's look on the bright side of this, you have Seymo-"

"No! No no no No! He _is _the problem! It's been two weeks, TWO weeks and already nearly all my hair products have been emptied, he hogs Rikku's en-suite leaving ME to listen to her complaining, he takes the car without us knowing, he spends all day watching soap opera's, I mean we even have to COOK for him, for yevon's sake, we can barely cook for ourselves. Also, he talks so much, sometimes all I want is a moments of peace and qu-"

"Oh damn, love to chat with you sweetheart but I've got another phone call coming in-"

"No daddy no-"

"- I'll talk to you soon.."

"No dad, you can't leave me like this-"

"Love you!"

-click-

"daddy? DADDY!!?"

"Mr Braska's on the phone? Hey let me talk to the guy." Wearing nothing but a white bath robe with a half eaten banana in his left hand, Seymour carelessly snatched the phone off Yuna after coolly striding out of the bathroom.

"Hey Braska my man how-" frowning worriedly at Yuna, Seymour slowly placed the phone back onto it's cradle as he took another bite from his banana, not once taking his eyes off her bi-coloured ones.

"Babe.." he started hesitantly, "it's unhealthy for you to be fantasizing about.. your dad. I mean sure, he looks great for a 40 year old but I mean, _come on_….what?"

In Yuna's entire life, she had never been so utterly disgusted, "ARGH!"

-------------------------------------

"Lawrence, Rikku, Kate, Janey and…." Rapidly scanning the white piece of A4 paper in her delicate hands, the blonde teacher finally located the remaining name, "Tidus. You guys have not yet handed in your Evaluation essays on the camp. I expect them on my table first thing next morning or else don't bother getting a grade for it."

The classroom was filled with whispering as students took it as a silent indication to speak once Miss Daniels turned her back. Without the presence of Squall, it left Tidus sitting next to an already occupied Wakka whilst he did nothing better than stare at the back of Yuna's head.

"Now that that's out of the way, I have another rather pleasant announcement to make. It has to my attention that-"

"Students and Teachers, may I have your attention please?" pausing for a moment, the principal continued, "Phone calls have been made and confirmations are settled. It has finally been decided that Zanarkand High and Luca High will take their competition of Blitzball in two and a half weeks from today on a Friday night. I myself will be attending this occasion; hopefully I will see many familiar faces in the crowd, supporting the Zanarkand Abes."

From the point where the date was officially announced, the rest of the principal's speech was completely drowned out as classroom after classroom roared in excitement. Many students from other classes ran down the hallways screaming and yelling in anticipation, ignoring their teachers' threats of punishment. As a few kids ran passed Miss Daniels' homeroom, many of them did a double take before running outside the classroom door and started smashing on the clear glass window.

"Yo Tidus man, make us proud!"

"We're depending on you to whip up those Luca punks!"

"We'll be right behind you bro. We've got your back!"

"Show those kids what Zanarkand High's made of!"

Other shout outs were made to both Wakka and Tidus before the students were literally pulled back to class. Despite Lulu, Yuna and Tidus, their own homeroom had also erupted in cheers and expectedly all the attention was drawn towards the blonde Lord. As her blue and green eyes scanned the room, she noticed that everyone was staring admiringly at the person situated right behind her. Closing her eyes, Yuna so desperately wanted to take a glance at Tidus herself. She wanted to turn around and show him her enthusiasm. She wanted to turn around and tease him about his admirers. And most of all, she wanted to turn around and simply show that he was on her mind… constantly.

Without knowing, for once in a long while, she had sub-consciously allowed her heart to dominate over her mind, and her head slowly turned around. To her surprise, as soon as her eyes reached Tidus' side face, she realized that the expression wasn't as happy as she had previously assumed it would be. Yevon, Yuna had forgotten how handsome he was, allowing inner instincts to take over her better judgments, she continued staring at his side face.

To her horror, before she was able to shift her gaze else where, Tidus' blue orbs found hers. Time seemed to have frozen and everything around them was a mere blur. Though Yuna wanted to pull away from his heavy stare, she couldn't bring herself to do it, and instead, the only thing she found herself capable of doing was present him with a smile. Not a cheerful smile, not a taunting smile, just a smile of recognition.

Yuna nearly wanted to leap out of her chair and throw herself at him when he blushed and smiled a one hundred watt genuine smile. This was how she had previously pictured him to be, this was how happy she knew he was suppose to be.

"Uh, I um… Do it for Zanarkand." Yuna said timidly.

Tidus' heart nearly leapt off his chest. Two weeks. Two whole damn fricken weeks he had been deprived of her angelic smile and voice. Two whole hellish weeks she had avoided him, never being any less than 100 feet away from him during breaks. And all of a sudden, here it comes rolling back in, within TWO MINUTES!! Maybe Yevon finally felt sorry for him. Maybe Yevon acknowledged the times when he spent the entire night awake, thinking only of Yuna. The times when he would walk pass a boutique and find something he thought would look good on Yuna and buy it. The times when he even fantasized about Yuna lying next to him in bed. Finally, Yevon opened its eyes.

Wanting ever so desperately to continue this sacred conversation, Tidus leaned forward in a futile attempt to indicate that he also had something to say. But the moment Miss Daniels interrupted the entire class, Tidus felt like ramming his head against the blackboard for being so slow and dumbfounded.

_'Yevon, why must you tease me like that? Why?'_

"Goodness! Settle down! In two and a half weeks, you may all celebrate, but for now, you will all pay attention to me, to the announcement that _I _wanted to make." Clearing her throat, she continued from where she left off, "It has come to my attention that this class has already submitted two individual assignments, one being the camp. Now, a section of the criteria is based on group work, so your upcoming-" before she got to finish, the class began groaning aloud, "Glad to hear you're happy. Your upcoming assignment will be between two people and NO, you may not choose. We have all ready wasted enough time in this class so I will now quickly read out your partners." At that, she grabbed the class list with the already assigned couples.

"Okay, Mathew and Lucas."

"Lulu and Lawrence."

"Rikku and Kate."

"Tidus and Yu-," _'Yes, please let it be PLEASE!' _"no wait, sorry. Tidus and Jim."

_'YEVON WHY?__ WHY WHY WHY?! Have you decided to neglect your pal Tidus again?'_

"Dana and Dan."

"Yuna and Simon." and she went on until the class was randomly paired up.

"None and I mean, none of this assignment requires outside school work. Everything is marked according to what is done _during_ class. This tests your ability to work under limited amount of time and tests your ability to cope with stress and what is thrown at you unexpectedly. Take it very seriously. This will help you a great deal in exams. I often get students coming up to me telling me that they've studied the wrong thing and had to work with what they had on the spot in the exam. Every period you will be given a different assignment and every assignment will be due by the end of the lesson. Today, your first assignment is-"

"ALREADY?!" someone yelled out.

Smirking slightly and glancing at the clock, Miss Daniels knew of the remaining ten minutes, "The probability of Zanarkand High defeating Luca High in Blitzball!"

This provoked another loud applause from the class.

--------------------------------

Scribbling down something really quickly, Tidus immediately sprinted out of class as soon as Period two was over. Damn that was one boring class. From period one with Yuna to Period two with absolutely no one, Tidus had taken the liberty of giving himself some shut eye. Once he reached the hallways, he quickly located Yuna's locker and slipped the little white piece of paper through the slits. Spinning around straight away so that he wouldn't get caught by Yuna, he was however unfortunately confronted by none other than Myleena.

"Hey Tidus! Whatcha doin?" she asked sweetly.

"Nothing Myleena." He answered bluntly.

Though slightly hurt by his harshness, she continued, "Well, just wanted to give you a hug and, train hard." And with that, she hugged him tightly before turning around and leaving Tidus alone.

Just as Tidus started moving, he looked up to see Yuna with her head down and her body gestures seemed worn out though she was tightly grasping the books in front of her chest. The brunette took a deep breath; looked straight at Tidus and forced a smile as she walked passed him to her locker.

Running his gloved hand through his blonde locks, the blitzer sighed inwardly. He knew exactly why she looked so worn out, because he himself was tired of these misunderstandings, though she on the other hand perceived them as hurtful acts directed towards her.

_'Don't worry Yuna; you'll see soon enough that these are all misinterpretations. I'm just sorry you have to go through all of this. You look tired. And it's my fault.'_

He shook his head slightly with a dampened mood as he tiredly walked away from the scene. This is too much for her that she can't even express her anger anymore. The smile and the words of encouragement were merely an act of obligation. He was now nothing to her anymore, that's why she didn't even regard him highly enough to take up any of her mind.

All these negative thoughts swarmed through his head, trying his hardest not to let them faze him. Little did he know that the misunderstanding Yuna had of him mirrored his own misunderstanding of her actions. If only he knew that Yuna's inner battle had finally sided with him. If only he knew Yuna, against her own will, had already forgiven him. If only he knew Yuna had finally believed in his words of self justification, then he wouldn't be so clouded with a sense of depression.

-----------------------------------

"Rikku. Hey are you busy right now?"

"Oh hey Lulu, um, one second…. SEYMOUR I MEAN IT! YOU DON'T COME OUT IN 30 SECONDS, I'M GONNA BREAK THIS DOOR DOWN MYSELF!... hey Lu, what's up?"

"Uh, nothing. Don't worry bout it. Bye"

"Oh okay," Rikku replied, confused, "C-ya!"

Once Lulu hung up, she grumbled lightly to herself. How could she forget that this Seymour guy was now living with Yuna and Rikku _hence_ leaving them car-less _hence_ forcing them to take public transport. And now she was stuck back at school without a lift home, and public transport was definitely not an option. Silently, the raven haired beauty began cursing about her 30 minute hold up by her English Literature teacher, thinking to herself that it was highly un-necessary to spend half an hour complimenting her on her grades. However, if it weren't for his traveling eyes, Lulu would NOT have been so pissed. Sighing aloud, she grudgingly made her way to the school gym where she would simply have to wait for either Tidus or Wakka whilst quietly chanting, "One and a half hour is not long, one and a half hour is not long…."

--------------------------------

Upon reaching the gym, Lulu's mouth opened ever so slightly once she caught sight of the training. The intensity, the force, the determination, she had not realize how much this meant to the Blitzball team. Gradually making her way to a vacant seat, the amazement on her face slowly seeped away. The looks on everyone's faces were so serious and the atmosphere was so tense. Yelling and shout outs were heard loudly as it echoed through the entire gym, making Lulu seem insignificant being so out of place. Her eyes scanned around until she was finally able to make out the orange spiky haired blitzer.

Deciding that her eyes were going to rest upon the training figure, she allowed herself to lean back and wait patiently for Wakka to notice her. Just as the miscellaneous voices were starting to drown out, a familiar voice snapped her from staring at Wakka back to reality, "Lulu, what brings you hear?"

Auron walked over to her with a navy wife beater and knee length board shorts with a white towel draped over his broad shoulders. He seemed a bit out of breath which Lulu concluded that he was also training along with the team. "Hello sir."

"So, you interested in joining?"

"Oh Yevon no! I'm here to wait for my ride home." Lulu replied with a horrid expression.

Chuckling to himself, he merely sat there, expertly observing his players.

Lulu herself, despite continuously glancing at Auron, kept her focus between the two top players. Unknown to herself, a little frown had made its way onto her delicate face. Her attention was once again distracted by Auron chuckling softly next to her.

"See something wrong?" he asked, obviously detecting her confusion.

"Yes." She replied, still not taking her eyes off the pair, "Why… why are they training with so much…" desperately trying to find an appropriate word, Auron decided to help her out.

"Anger?"

"Yes!"

He shook his head before instructing Lulu to watch more carefully, and so she did.

After minutes of silent studying, Lulu did not understand where this was leading to.

Sensing her uncertainty, Auron began, "Watch how Tidus delivers the ball and then watch how Wakka receives the ball."

Nodding, Lulu gave her observation another go. She watched as Tidus fiercely throws the ball and as Wakka, just as fiercely, catches it. Then all of a sudden, she detected something else. A difference? She knew there was something different about the way they trained, but her mind simply did not allow her to put it into words.

"There is something different with the way they are training, but, I can't tell."

Without looking at Lulu, Auron kept his eye on the two players before explaining, "It is Tidus who delivers the ball with anger, not Wakka. Wakka must keep his guard up, he must remain cautious or else he could get hurt. The aggressiveness amongst the two are very different." Without bothering to explain any further, he looked at Lulu, "I don't know what it is, I don't _care_ what it is, but I do hope that this weird behaviour of Tidus will disappear. If not, it may cost us the tournament."

--------------------------------

Tapping her lean fingers on the side of Wakka's car, Lulu waited impatiently for her _chauffeur _to get changed. Suddenly loud footsteps and panting were heard as it approached her, "Lu, sorry. Did you wait long? Come on, let's go." Wakka heaved as he opened the car door for his companion. The pair silently hopped into his car, and not long afterwards, they were on their way to Lulu's house.

Heavy silence fell among them and the only noise they heard were the vague sounds from the outside world and the low rumbling of the engine. Wakka fidgeted slightly in his seat whilst Lulu kept her gaze outside the door window. Her mind was still occupied with explanations to Tidus' hidden demeanor. WAIT! Throughout all these practices, Wakka must have known ages ago. Cutting through the silence like a knife, Lulu spoke.

"Wakka." At the sound of his name, he cursed himself for jumping.

"Y-yeah Lu?"

"Have you noticed any changes with Tidus lately?"

At this, even if it were Lulu, he could not help but roll his eyes, "Well of course! He hides it during class but, man; I am scared for my life during practices." He exaggerated.

"Hm, this has definitely got to do with Yuna. I tried to ignore it, but now, I don't know. I didn't think it was this bad. What is even going on? Yuna has not spoken to Tidus ever since we came back from camp."

As disappointed as Wakka was with the topic of conversation, he replied, "This might sound stupid but I don't think it's all that bad ya?"

Lulu gave him a questioning look.

"I mean, I have never seen Tidus this concerned over a girl. NEVER. Maybe, just maybe, he's starting to grow up. BUT of course I'd prefer him to remain professional with Blitzball or else Coach is going to make him regret it."

Silence once again claimed them as Wakka made a sharp turn to the left. His eyes were kept firmly on the road but his mind was elsewhere.

"Uh Lu?"

"Hm?"

"I, I uh, wanna ask you something." Nervously, he quickly stole a glance at Lulu before diverting his eyes back onto the road as he made another turn into Lulu's street.

Taking her silence as his cue to ask, he decided to wait just a little longer, until he got to the front of her house to ask. Braking almost abruptly, he turned off his engine and merely sat there looking ahead of him.

"Wakka, what is it?"

Silence.

"Wakka?"

No reply.

"WAKKA! Is there some-,"

"Is there an 'us'?" There he said it! He finally asked her!

"…what?"

Cringing, Wakka could not believe that he had to repeat himself. He couldn't. He just couldn't! His courage had left him completely, and physically and mentally, he was drained. Closing his eyes, he slouched down, "Don't worry 'bout it. Have a good night Lu."

Without even hearing a 'bye' from Lulu, she left his car, leaving him to close his eyes in exasperation.

He felt so miserable now, almost betrayed. All this time, he had led himself to believe that Lulu had actually returned his feelings, but now he realized that all Lulu wanted to do was 'muck around' with him, just like she did at camp. Nothing but a fling. None of the official boyfriend and girlfriend crap. Just a fl-

Suddenly the sound of the door opening and closing caused him to open his eyes again. There she was, sitting there looking at him. "Lu what-," before he could finish, Lulu quickly yet smoothly pulled him by the neck towards her as their lips locked in a passionate kiss.

It seemed like forever before they both parted breathlessly, staring at one another.

"So, I guess that answers your question huh?"

Chuckling, Wakka replied, "Better than I could ever expect." this time, Wakka pulled her in for their second kiss.

Gently pushing him off her, Lulu warned, "You know Squall might kill you for this right?"

Smiling mischievously he countered back, "I can take him on anytime."

Smiling at each other, their lips met for the third and final time that night. This was official. _They_ were official.

_'Wonder why she even bothered to leave the car in the first place? Oh well, I'm not complaining, Yevon her tongue..'_

_--------------------------------------------------------------------------_

AN: Yes I know the chapters are getting boring, but what did you expect, this is a high school fic, I repeat a high **SCHOOL **fic.) Thanks for the reviews guys!! Have a nice day!

I've got a new fic out, it's called **'Chocolates and Charcoal'**! Go check it out!!

SkyeLight


	15. How the mind works

**_Chapter 15_**

**_How the mind works_**

Tidus laid on his back, one arm propped under his head while the other continually tossed the miniature beanie blitzball into the air. His whole body ached as it cried out for relief. Two weeks of constant training certainly took its toll on his mind and body. Lazily glancing at the clock by his bedside table, he mentally noted that dinner was on its way. A smile graced upon his lips when he silently came to the conclusion of taking a long hot shower after dinner before getting that darn 'camp evaluation' started.

Although blitzers were given extensions on all assignments because of the Tournament, Tidus still had four overdue. Looking around the room, the blonde began to think of what kind of 'crap' he would make up for the essay. Before anything could come to mind, his eyes led him to his surfboard that was dumped in the corner amongst a pile of worn clothes. He suddenly stopped throwing his beanie as he slowly climbed out of bed and made his way to the surfboard.

Smiling, he realized that there was absolutely no need to make anything up, he already had too much to talk about in his essay to fit any 'crap' in.

The sound of his butler's voice interrupted his thoughts as he announced that dinner was ready. Against his aching body, he hurriedly jogged out of his room. Sprinting down the flight of stairs, he came to a sudden halt when the sight of his father sitting at the table almost made him want to run back upstairs. Too late.

"Come here boy." His voice was serious and stern.

Grudgingly, Tidus pulled himself towards the table. Funnily he wasn't hungry anymore.

_'The hell is he doing home so early?'_

He noisily pulled the chair from beneath the table and sluggishly sat down. He ran his gloved hand through his hair as he waited for it. He just knew that Jecht had prepared a lecture for him. It was a definite.

Jecht looked at Tidus for a brief moment before looking away and seemingly trying to calm himself down.

_'Yevon, how dramatic.'_

"What the shit is this about you training like a chocobo on drugs?"

Tidus' eyes widened instantly.

_'Shit! Auron actually told him.'_

Keeping his cool, Tidus cocked an eyebrow up in question, "Chocobo on drugs?"

"Boy shut up, you know what I mean. Now explain to me, what the hell is up with you?"

"Nothing."

"Damn it boy. This is your future we're talking about. Blitzball should be your number one-"

"-_number one priority_ right? Shit! I've just been a little distracted lately alright? Auron's just making a big deal over it."

"Distracted! What the hell over? Let me tell you here boy, if you wanna be anything like me, you better start focusing soon or else you're always gonna be a damn amateur you hear me!"

His son rolled his eyes, being like him was the last thing Tidus wanted to be.

In an annoyed manner, he pushed his chair out before announcing, "I'm not hungry anymore."

On his way back to his room, not only did he ignore Jecht's constant lecturing, he was also mentally cursing at Auron.

_'I'm not like a chocobo on drugs am I?'_

He shook his head and pushed the door opened. Looking over towards his en-suite, he was tempted to just strip off all his clothes right then and there and take his long deserved shower. As if teasing him, his blue eyes looked towards his desk, making him debate whether to start the essay now or later.

Deciding to not give into temptation, he forcefully pushed his body towards his table. If he wasn't going to do it now, he'll never do it.

He lazily and carelessly brushed the miscellaneous junk off his table before he switched on his computer. As he waited for it to load, he smiled at the things he was going to write about. Hopefully this wasn't going to take him the whole night; he was still in need of a shower.

* * *

The moment the two girls heard the bathroom door closing, Rikku immediately pounced on Yuna's bed, "Okay tell me now Yunie!"

The brunette sighed, "It's really not that interesting."

"Yunie," Rikku said in a warning tone, "You only have the amount of time Seymour's in the shower to tell me what is going on between you and Tidus."

"I… Fine!" Yuna breathed out in defeat.

"Okay, hurry, you _only_ have an entire hour!" the blonde joked sarcastically.

Nodding in understanding, Yuna finally finished her summary of everything that had occurred to her within the last two weeks.

A moment of silence passed between them before Rikku pointed out, "Yunie, I'm not siding with him, but… it just doesn't seem like Tidus to ask to talk to you, then kiss a girl in front of you, _and then_ try to beg for your understanding. I mean, it just doesn't make sense."

"I know." She sighed tiredly in response, "But I was angry, I didn't think clearly."

"I guess I would've reacted the way you did."

As much as Yuna was glad and relieved that Rikku wasn't judgmental or biased about the situation, she couldn't help but roll her bi-coloured eyes. Years of knowing her cousin taught her one thing: Rikku acted on impulse, and that would basically mean if Rikku were Yuna, Tidus would be in the hospital as they were speaking.

"…Wait! So does that mean you've forgiven him already?"

"I-I think so. But it's just so awkward now. I don't know why though. It was easier back then when we were always arguing. Now..it's just different." She concluded with a sigh.

Snapping her head up at Rikku, she gave her a questioning look before asking, "Have you heard anything, um, like anything _weird _about.. you know… lately?"

"Well," her cousin hesitated, "a little rumor's going around saying that Tidus seems, well, distracted during blitzball training. He's injured a few blitzers already including Wakka and himself. Nothing serious of course." Rikku looked up and nearly giggled at the look of urgency on Yuna's face.

She continued, "They're afraid it might affect his performance on the day of the tournament."

Yuna was a mute from then on with a surprised look on her face.

Rikku reached out and gently touched Yuna's left arm, an attempt to capture her attention, "You…You have feelings for him don't you?"

Yuna looked up at Rikku, this time, slightly confused at the question.

"You said it yourself before. You feel awkward around him, well that's because instead of always being at each other's throat, you haven't adapted to this new feeling yet, and because you've had such a rough start, you'd probably have a whole heap of mixed feelings in you right now…do I make sense to you?"

Smiling, Yuna replied, "Yes…it makes so much sense it kinda scares me coming from you." She joked.

"Hey!"

They had their brief moment of laughter before the atmosphere was once again a tranquil one.

"Rikku," Yuna looked up worriedly at her smiling cousin, "I-I think I really do have feelings for him."

Rikku's smile of understanding went by unnoticed as Yuna's mind was occupied with the white piece of paper she found in her locker.

_'I'll do it for you.'_

* * *

Leaning back in his chair, Tidus re-read his essay for the umpteenth time that night. He looked at the time on his computer and mentally patted his back for finishing the essay in two hours. For once, he didn't struggle nor did he blank out during typing the evaluation. Although there were times when he would pause briefly, contemplating whether to write about a particular incident or not. However almost all the times when he pondered about doing it or not, he always ended up adding it in, but he was cautious to leave out the little fist fight between Justin and himself.

_10.07pm_

Dragging his mouse over towards the toolbar, he quickly saved it onto a disc before ejecting it and dumping it into his bag. He arched his back until he heard it pop and slowly got off his chair. With the amount of bad luck he's been having with Yuna and the pressure of the tournament weighing heavily on his shoulders, he still managed a smile while his was making his way towards the en-suite.

After the raging water was adjusted to the temperature suitable for his bare flesh, he carelessly slid his t-shirt over his head before removing his gloves and the bottoms of his Blitzball uniform. He stepped into the shower stool as he eagerly embraced in the warm water beating down on his worn out body. Just as his mind was finally giving him a little rest, the water running down his bare flesh only reminded him of his blitzball training.

Along with that, words of warning from Jecht, Auron AND Wakka swarmed his head.

He wasn't that bad was he? He was just a bit quieter than usual, a bit fiercer than normal and a bit more heated than during an ordinary session…. shit.

Running both hands though his blonde locks, he begged the water trailing down his face to consume his mind, but that only triggered more questions.

Suddenly fed up with the questioning, he pounded his fist against the tile wall.

All these built up emotion and tension needed release. He was angry, but he had no reason to be. So Blitzball practice was the only lame excuse to sub-consciously let it all out.

So that was it. So that was why he had been so odd lately during the practices.

_'Pfft, and they think it's bad for me. They have no clue what they're saying to me. This is good; I can actually find solace in Blitzbal… Idiots.'_

* * *

"Whoo! The shower was the best! Like always of course."

"Finally." Rikku mumbled quietly.

Glancing at his little blonde friend seated on the kitchen stool reading a magazine, he smirked as he quickly snatched it off her.

"Hey!" she protested.

"What's this that little Rikku is reading here?" he mocked in a childish tone.

Looking up at her in fake surprise, he mocked a gasp, "Why lookie here, '10 quick ways to get yourself a guy.' Oh you're adorable."

If looks could kill, Seymour didn't stand a chance.

"Give it back." She forcefully gritted through her teeth.

"Wow, I see veins. Now now, Riks, you don't want wrinkles at this age." He teased, neatly placing the magazine in front of her.

"Really, haven't I taught you anything? Honestly, you do NOT need a magazine to teach, or rather TELL you how to get a guy."

"Look Seymour, I'm only reading this because I'm bored, not because-"

Before Rikku could finish, the phone rang.

"I'LL GET IT!" Seymour roared.

Rikku nearly fell off her stool from the sudden fright.

Clearing his throat, he picked the phone up, "Hello?"

_'Is he trying to sound seductive?'_

"Hey there Braska, how are things holding up at your end? … Oh that's so not cool…yep…yep…uh huh….gotcha…yep… FOR REAL! Yunie's gonna flip when she finds out." Quickly glancing back at Rikku who was staring at him with an unreadable expression, he turned his back slightly as he covered his mouth over the speaker, "Between you and me," he said quietly and secretively, "I have a feeling these girls are getting sick of me."

Rikku rolled her emerald green eyes. For yevon's sake, he was only three feet way. She could even_ hear_ what he was thinking.

"Okay, see ya soon. Say hi to Catherine for me will ya? Right, bye!"

"What did Uncle Braska say?" Rikku asked as soon as Seymour hung up.

"He's arriving the day after tomorrow, which makes that a Thursday. Hmm, Thursday Thursday, Thursday…Nope, not doing anything that day. Good, I can go with Yunie to go pick him and Cat up. How exciting, then I can get out of this poorly accommodated hole."

Choosing to ignore the comment, Rikku could only assume that once Braska arrives, Seymour would then be tagging along with him.

"Once Yunie is out of the shower, _I'M_ telling her the exciting news…Got it?"

"Whatever." And she continued to flip through her magazine.

* * *

"It's all my fault. He hates me now!" Myleena cried to her group.

"Well what did ya do to piss him off like that?" a group member asked.

"That's not important. He hates me. He can't even stand looking at me. I'm sorry guys. I think I'm the reason as to why he doesn't hang out with us anymore."

"Oh don't be silly My, he's just been busy with Blitzball and stuff." A blonde tried comforting.

But Myleena knew better. This wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to fall for her. But now, everything's back fired. Is this what they call Karma? Grudgingly, Myleena finally admitted defeat. For some reason, she was no match for Yuna. Two and half weeks of Tidus' cold shoulder were more than she could stand. Had she really been that wrong? Although back then Tidus never showed any intimate feelings towards her, he at least treated her like a… sister.

But now, she had nothing.

And she regretted it.

"Guys, I think I'm gonna find Tidus and sort this out." And with that, she hesitantly left the table.

Walking down the empty hallways, it wasn't a problem at all for Myleena to spot out the lone figure buried in his locker, seemingly trying to find his Blitzball gear.

Nervously, she walked up behind Tidus and tapped him on the shoulder. Once his body spun around in surprise, he couldn't help but roll his eyes at the sight.

It hurt. It really did hurt. But she was going to be brave. She was going to mend their friendship, even if it was as far as they could go.

Turning back around, Tidus continued looking for his shorts as he tried to ignore the unwanted company.

She cleared her throat almost inaudibly before she spoke.

"Tidus, can I talk to you?"

"Yeah sure Myleena, then are you gonna wait for Yuna to show up then grab my neck and kiss me?"

He didn't mean to be so harsh, but damn, this girl had pissed him off so much. She was the reason why these weeks have been so shit for him.

"I-I…" She was speechless at that.

"Wow," she whispered, "I guess you really do know me well."

At that, he remained silent.

"Look Tidus, I'm here to apologize. I know… I know that I'm wrong now. Just please, don't be like this."

Shaking his head, Tidus turned around after he dumped all his blitzball gear back into his locker.

"Be like what? This?" he asked, pointing to his face.

"Yes." She replied, almost whining.

He crossed his arms across his chest and asked, "You don't think you deserve it?"

She paused for a while before answering, "Yes, I understand that you're mad, but two weeks Tidus. It's been two and half weeks to be exact? Don't you think it's enou-,"

"No!" he interrupted.

Myleena fell silent.

"You think I haven't caught up with your little charade yet? I know Myleena, I know everything."

She was confused, "What?" The question wasn't asking him of what he knew, but instead, asking him to explain what he just meant by his words.

Tidus chuckled bitterly.

"The pranks?" he replied cockily.

Oh my Yevon, he knew! She was shocked, she couldn't' speak. Now she knew she was in a deeper mess than she had originally started out to be in.

"What? Thought I wouldn't have known? You're her only hater. Who else would've done it?"

Her silence only angered him further as it confirmed everything he said.

"Damn it Myleena! You sent two guys to try and sexually assault her! How the hell did you manage to find it in yourself to do that? Shit!"

At this point, tears were streaming down her face. Tears of shame, guilt and whatever the hell that was making her feel so bad.

Lunch had just ended as students started to pile in the hallway. Tidus didn't seem a bit fazed but Myleena was trying her hardest to hide her tears.

She continued crying, "I-I…"

But she couldn't' say anything, she was almost choking by now.

Suddenly she felt fingertips beneath her chin as it slowly and gently tilted her face upwards.

His eyes were gentler now, no longer filled with hate and disgust as it once possessed.

"_Now_ tell me you're sorry."

Pausing for a brief moment to compose herself, she spoke with sincerity, "I am."

With that, Tidus pulled her in for a tight hug. Finally, she felt the forgiveness, from him and from herself. It felt good to stop hating, stop fighting.

Releasing her from him, she managed a smile as she wiped her tear stained face.

"Thanks."

Smiling, Tidus looked up and almost wanted to scream in frustration at what he saw. Why was Yevon being so damn cruel?

There she was, standing amongst the scattering students with a look of hurt plastered on her delicate features.

How could he be so thoughtless? Their lockers were only a few metres away. For Yevon's sake, they were in the same homeroom; of course they're bound to bump into each other.

Realizing the sudden change of attitude in Tidus, she turned to look at the culprit. Her eyes vaguely scanned the hallway until they landed on the back of the girl who had stolen _her _Tidus' heart.

Smiling at Tidus again she said, "I owe you one." And with that she made her way towards Yuna, who was desperately trying to hold her tears at bay whilst she busied herself with the books she needed.

Feeling a presence next to her, Yuna didn't dare look. She was almost certain that it was Tidus.

Her voice was calm but bitterness was detected. As much as Myleena loved Tidus, she couldn't bring herself to accept Yuna just yet.

"We're only friends." And she left.

Shocked, Yuna slowly turned around to look at Tidus, who had been watching the whole thing moments ago. She then looked at Myleena's retreating back and for some reason, she believed her.

The sight of Yuna's red eyes made Tidus want to run up to her and hug her and then ram his head against the lockers until he blacked out. But he couldn't, he didn't have the courage. He didn't know if he could take it if Yuna actually rejected him. He wasn't ready to risk it, not yet.

* * *

"So when are we gonna tell them?"

"Not now, not when they're like this. It's like we're rubbing it in their faces."

"Aww," Wakka whined, "Tidus won't mind."

"Wakka." Lulu warned.

"Aw, fine." He kissed her briefly on the cheek before she hurriedly walked to her next class.

Man did Wakka want to boast about Lulu. Maybe not to Squall…or Tidus yet… but if Tidus couldn't know yet, that would mean the whole school wouldn't know and damn did he want the whole school to know.

* * *

AN: Yes pointless, but I really didn't want to rush into things. But after this chapter it will be more interesting. I hope. Thank you so much for still reading this. Even _I _got bored typing this chapter! Now REVIEW away.

Ps: For those who are interested in stories based on real life issues like racism, sexism, drugs, sex and stuff, go check out my new fic 'Chocolates and Charcoal.' (rated R).

SkyeLight


	16. News for Yuna

**_Chapter 16_**

**_News for Yuna_**

---------------------------------

Yuna swallowed nervously as she fought the urge to bite her bottom lip. She had anticipated his arrival ever since the beginning and yet now, for some reason, a foreign feeling engulfed her entire being. Nervousness. But why? This was after all, her own father whom she had grown up to love. Never had she felt the absence of her mother who had died a few years after giving birth to her because of the amount of attention and love Braska showered upon her.

Though it was undeniable that at times, Yuna secretly confessed her longing for a mother figure, it never lasted long or strong enough to overpower her appreciation of the presence of just her and her father. Unlike stories, unlike movies and most of all, unlike many other families, as cruel and selfish as it may sound, Yuna never lived a day feeling the guilt of her mother's premature death upon her shoulders. And that was how she liked it. That was what Braska made sure of.

Taking a quick glimpse at her wrist watch, she anxiously stood near the pier and desperately waited for her father to arrive and along with that, ridding her from this negative feeling.

The miscellaneous noises surrounding her were drowned out, even the two bickering voices next to her faded away as question after question sprinted through her head. Yuna realized, not long later, that she in fact had not anticipated his arrival, but instead misinterpreted it. She had told herself so many times that she was supposed to feel positive about her father visiting that she sub-consciously allowed her brain to do the feeling instead of her heart.

"Seymour, are you sure that this is the pier?"

"For Yevon's s- Rikku, if you're gonna ask me that again I'm going to-"

"What? What are you going to do?" Rikku threatened, standing on the tip of her toes.

Crossing his arms and looking away, Seymour softly mumbled to himself, "Girls. What do guys see in them anyways?"

Yuna's bi-coloured eyes once again fell down to her wrist watch, this time feeling slightly impatient. She had rushed to the pier after school for no reason. They were 30 whole minutes late. What could be holding them up? Were they really on the wrong pier? Damn Seymour. You can never rely on someone like him.

"Yunie, do you want me to go check the other piers?" Rikku asked.

"Uh," Yuna thought as her eyes quickly glanced around in front of her, "No, we'll just go together. Doesn't seem like a boat is approaching anyway."

Rikku nodded her head as Seymour continuously defended himself by reassuring them that this was where Braska was arriving. Choosing to ignore him, the two girls turned around and began making their way past Seymour before their eyes landed on their target.

"Ahem, Seymour? I don't see how you could get Pier nine mixed up with Pier seven."

Seymour spun around quickly to the sound of that voice.

Braska smiled light heartedly, momentarily placing his luggage on the ground, "Hi Rikku."

"Hi Uncle!" she squealed back, this provoking a little chuckle from Braska.

Now turning his full attention to the brunette who was still standing like she was suddenly paralyzed, he spoke, "Well, are you just going to stand there or are you gonna give this old man a hug or something?"

Immediately, Yuna broke into a full fledge smile before she ran up to him and welcomed him in an embrace.

"It's nice to see you too sweetheart."

Hesitantly, Yuna let go.

"Hey Braska, I thought Cath-,"

Just before Seymour could finish his question, a voice to all of Yuna's unanswered questions was heard.

"Hi everyone." The voice was gentle and carried an air of grace along with a bit of shyness.

Looking over Braska's shoulder, there stood a composed figure that Yuna had already met before at many occasions.

There stood Catherine.

------------------------------------

"Wow Catherine. This is impressive. It's much better than the so called _food_ _they _give me." Seymour complimented whilst jerking a thumb towards the direction of the talkative blonde and the unusually quiet brunette.

She merely waved a hand in the air, a gesture of dismissal and modesty. Hurriedly, Catherine undid the hair tie that was pulling up her short dark brown hair and made her way towards the dinner table in the over-crowed apartment.

She seated herself in between Rikku and Braska but neither one gave notice to it as they were already wolfing down their dinners. Her dark brown eyes looked around the little apartment, for she herself did not feel the need to eat. Gradually her eyes fell upon the figure sitting somewhat directly across from her. Bi-coloured eyes darted away as her brown orbs met them.

"Yuna," she addressed, "are you not hungry?"

Quickly, before her father could see, she merely offered a smile and shook her head as she dug her fork through the mashed potatoes.

Seymour chuckled, "She's just awed that for once she's actually having a decent meal."

This caught Braska's attention, "Yuna, don't you have proper meals?" concern heavily detected as he spoke.

Rolling her eyes at Seymour, who still had a little smirk on his face, she answered, "The meals I have are fine. Someone's just hard to please."

Braska took a quick look at Seymour before turning back to his left and whispered, "If he's giving you any trouble, let me know, and in no time, this," he gestured to his fork, "will be up his 'you know where'"

At that comment, Seymour gave a look of utter disgust and horror as he flinched ever so slightly.

"Uh..H-Hey! You know I'm not serious. You're meals are completely fine and not to mention, your food is way better than this!" This time, jerking his thumb towards his plate of food.

"Boy you better watch what you say." Braska warned, pointing his fork at him that made him whimper in his chair.

The scenario played between the two men successfully brought a little giggle from Yuna, and unknown to the still laughing ladies, relief washed over Braska.

-----------------------------------

"Lu, seriously, he's gonna bust my ass if I don't get back. He's really shitty today."

"Oh come one, just a little longer, I'm bored."

"Oh man. He was already suspicious before. Come on Lu, if you love me, you'll let me go ya?" Wakka pleaded desperately.

"Just tell him it took longer than expected."

There was a brief pause and Lulu could almost _hear _him roll his eyes, "Lu, it doesn't take fifteen minutes to take a dump. And plus, Tidus could've killed some guy out there from his attacks for all I know. Come on, we're talking bout life or death situation here."

Sighing in defeat, Lulu hung up without saying good-bye. It wasn't out of anger, but instead, out of knowledge of Wakka's urgency.

Jumping up from the change room bench, he flung his cell phone into his bag and sprinted outside, where he was then confronted by an intimidating face.

"It took you fifteen damn minutes?" It was a rhetorical question.

Chuckling nervously as he jogged away from his coach, he yelled back over his shoulder, "Well, who knows what kind of food the cafeteria is serving us these days ya?"

----------------------------------

"WHAT?" the three roommates cried in unison.

"No No No. Uncle, he cannot stay with us anymore. No way."

"She's right…for once. I cannot stay with them. They don't even provide the essential needs for a man with high maintenance."

There was silence for a while, everyone, with the exception of Catherine, hoping he would detect his own stupidity in his statement.

"What, it's true." He protested, "Their hot water runs out after only 32 - yes I timed – 32 minutes of showering. They don't have cable. They only have two different types of combs. I need four. I don't have privacy, I don't have freedom, I don't-,"

Braska indifferently walked towards the kitchen cupboards before he quickly grabbed something and walked towards Seymour, pointing the fork at him again.

Groaning in annoyance, Seymour tiredly fell back onto the one seater couch. As much as he knew that it was just a hollow meaningless threat, he obeyed every time.

"Look kids. Don't forget, I help you pay half the bills here, now all I'm asking in return is that you keep Seymour here for another three weeks. Just three short weeks. After that you can do whatever you want with him, throw him on the streets, ship him away, whatever. It's up to you."

"Man Braska, I thought we were pals." Seymour mumbled.

"We are pals. Only that you're my daughter's age and I'm, well, you're father's age."

"Uh, please. Do not compare me with these teena-,"

"So is that a yes from the two of you?"

The girls took a look at each other before succumbing to Braska's plead. What other choice did they have? Braska obviously had a good reason for this and either way, he was going to have it his way no matter what. Plus the idea of shipping Seymour away was more than just appealing.

-----------------------------------

Auron ran his rough hands through his damp hair as he rested both his elbows on the tip of his knees with his torso leaning forwards. Without a doubt, victory played a big part in Blitzball. That was just the way it is. Everyone was there for one key reason. To win. The adrenaline, the atmosphere, the praise, those were just bonuses. But on the contrary, losing did not mean the end of the world. Not for Auron anyway.

What would tear him up inside would be _why_ they lost. As he looked around the stadium and watched his fierce blitzers train with everything they had, he shook his head in disappointment.

As far as he could see, they above all other teams had the potential to win every tournament. But why couldn't they see that this time, they were letting victory slip through their grasp.

No. He shook his head whilst little droplets of water landed on the bench. Not they. _He_. Why couldn't he see that he was letting the entire team down? Why couldn't he see that his emotions had already over taken him? Why couldn't he see them?

Even though Auron hated to admit it, he knew Tidus was the key to victory for the team. He was the best player. Maybe he hadn't surpassed Jecht yet, maybe he has, he couldn't give a rat's ass. All Auron knew was that Tidus was just like a double ended knife. If shown the right directions and techniques, it could be ruthless, dangerous yet successful, but if for some reason, it had been misled, everything could backfire.

Too much thinking got Auron to rub the area between his eyes, a futile attempt to clear his head. If Tidus wasn't going to play, the team was screwed. If Tidus were to compete, but in the state that he was in now, the team was still screwed.

Sighing, he realized that all he could do as a coach was consider what was best for the team. But right now, he didn't know what was best.

-----------------------------------

_10.05 pm_

"G'night Uncle, G'night Cat." Rikku yawned and hugged them good bye.

"You sure you don't want to stay longer? It's still early." Yuna asked as she grabbed her car keys.

"Nah, Rikku seems tired and the boat ride wasn't exactly the best."

She merely nodded as she waited for Seymour to grudgingly bid them farewell.

"Okay let's go." Yuna announced as soon as Seymour finished.

Their trip down to the parking lot was a silent one, and it only continued in the car when not long afterwards, Catherine had fallen asleep in the back seat. Though neither daughter nor father spoke, there was no awkwardness. It was only a feeling of peaceful tranquility in which they both basked in. The silence would only be interrupted when Braska would briefly point out the directions to his hotel. But after that, it was a mutual understanding to remain quiet.

"Yeah, that's the one. Just stop here"

"Here?" Yuna asked, stirring Catherine slightly.

"Yeah, you have to pay for parking."

Understanding at once, Yuna parked her car on the side of the road.

"Hunny? Hunny. Wake up. We're there."

"Dad? Why don't you actually get outta the car and get her?" Yuna questioned.

Ignoring Yuna, he continued to keep his torso twisted to tap Catherine on the shoulder.

Not long later, she woke to his fingers now jabbing her arm, "Oww."

"Cat, why don't you go up first? I have to talk to Yuna for a bit."

Groggily, Cat bid Yuna goodbye before stepping out of the car and slowly but steadily made her way to the hotel.

Both pairs of eyes followed her until she safely made her way into the lobby before Yuna broke the silence, "You need to talk to me? About what?"

"What do you think about Cat?"

Confused, she simply answered, "Uh, she's nice."

"Do you like her?"

"..I-uh I guess I do. She's friendly, I don't see why not."

Her dark brown eyebrows furrowed inwardly a bit, confusion evident on her delicate facial features. Did her father seriously stay behind just to ask her what she thought about Catherine? Sure they had already had their little private conversation after dinner, but Yuna couldn't help but let the disappointment show on her face. Thankfully, Braska was so occupied with what was going on in his own head, the expression went by unseen.

Braska seemed pleased with the answer, but made no attempt to say anything.

"Dad, what is all this about?"

"Do you ever miss your mom?"

"…um…I."

This totally caught Yuna off guard. Honestly, where was this leading? Now, despite confusion claiming her, annoyance was also detected. Can he just get to the point? This was getting tiring. If Braska had started the conversation differently, like asking about her well-being, maybe she wouldn't be as aggravated as she was right now. However, before she was given the chance to express her frustration, he was quick to rearticulate his words.

"Wait. Sorry, let me rephrase that… Do you miss a mother figure?"

Silence claimed them.

-----------------------------------

_11.00 pm_

Wondering downstairs, Tidus pulled his aching body towards the kitchen in search for something, _anything_, edible.

Just as he got to the kitchen, he was there to witness Jecht hanging up their home phone in slight annoyance. He tiredly rubbed his eyes before they caught sight of the person he wanted to speak to.

"Boy."

Taken aback that his father was actually acknowledging his presence, he turned around to face him, hoping that for once, his father would drop the Blitzball shit.

"Do you know a girl named Yuna?"

Immediately yet sub-consciously, the blonde's blue orbs widened visibly. That was the last thing he had expected his father to ask him. At the mention of her name, he couldn't help but allow an immense amount of interest in the topic to swell in him. In fact, he actually wanted to pull the chair out in front of him, grab a banana and have a deep and meaningful conversation with his 'Dad'. But as second after second went by, he realized that this topic may actually lead off onto other paths, paths that Tidus preferred to steer off.

_'Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. How the hell does he know Yuna? Yevon I do not need some sex ed. Lecture. Not now. Not ever. Not from him. Argh gross.'_

Taking his silence as a 'yes', he continued, "Well, I just got off the phone with her father."

"WAIT! You KNOW her father! Shit."

Now it was starting to freak Tidus out. _His_ father knew _her_ father. Since when? How? Why hadn't Yuna and he met before?

"Shut up boy, I'm already pissed enough that we have to show up to his stupid wedding, I don't need more of _your_ shit!"

--------------------------------------

An: I don't like the new rating system. Too confusing for little minds. Now go read my other fic! SHOO! If you want, that is.

**Side note.**

For the readers who are interested in being notified when I update a week or few days before hand, please leave a review WITH an email and I'd be more than happy to email the people who have requested for advance notification. Thank-you. 


	17. Zanarkand High Panics

WARNING: A bit more swearing in this chapter.

**_Chapter 17_**

**_Zanarkand High Panics_**

---------------------------------

"Come on move it move it! Get on the bus already!" Auron hollered, "Okay, I don't see everyone here! Who the hell is missing? I _did_ say nine o'clock on the freaking dot!"

His team merely glanced around as one by one; their names were ticked off by another gym teacher whilst stepping onto the bus. With one hand placed on the side of the bus and the other lazily resting above his pelvis, Auron didn't need an answer as the sight of the disheveled blonde gradually came into better view.

"So nice of you to join us." Auron spoke sarcastically once Tidus was standing right in front of him. There was a pause, almost like he was waiting for a reply. What was Tidus meant to say? _'Uh yeah coach, I do tend to make people's days.' _Or _'nice to see you too coach!' _What the hell? It wasn't even a question, he didn't need to reply.

"Stop staring and get on the bus! We're late!" He finally concluded by snapping Tidus out of his 'Monday morning daze'.

Ever since the unexpected news came upon his knowledge, he couldn't stop letting it repeat in his mind, though somewhere inside of him, he was tremendously thankful that the news didn't bother him much. He found out. He was surprised. He continued thinking about it. Continued to be surprised…. And he continued to think about Yuna. Simple as that. Damn was he thankful, he honestly couldn't store any more in his head now, especially with the Blitzball tournament in four days.

"Listen up 'cause I ain't gonna repeat myself." Auron stood tall in the aisle of the bus as everyone's attention was diverted to him.

"Today will be the only chance that we get to train at the stadium. Tomorrow, we train at the gym and that is it. Two days, you get two days before the competition to give yourselves a rest. So Yevon forbid, if I see any of you punks slacking off today, I will personally see to it that you get your sorry ass beaten. Got it?"

The bus merely gave a pathetic mumble as a sign of acknowledgment before the engine was ignited and the bus was on its way to the stadium.

* * *

Numerous solemn faces stared down at their individual assignment marks, failing to hear Miss Daniel's words of encouragement.

"Look, these assignments aren't easy. Don't let the marks bother you too much; they were after all your first attempt."

Even after her little speech, many students remained uncharacteristically quiet, obviously fazed by their results. Miss Daniels couldn't' help but look at them with signs of sympathy. It had finally occurred to them the seriousness and the level of difficulty they were yet to face in the coming weeks before exams. With all the events such as camp and the anticipated Blitzball tournament, it was understandable that the school's curriculum had been carelessly brushed to the side of every individual's minds.

Worry, disappointment and stress were the three main emotions displayed on each student's faces. As much as Miss Daniels had tried to convince them not to worry too much over the results, they knew that the exams were not going to be as kind, and if they had struggled with the practice assignments, they refused to even think of how they would do for the real exam. And to add salt to a wound, memory told them that these assignments were to be collaborated and shown on the report cards.

Panic stretched upon many faces once again as Miss Daniels started walking around and handed out an A4 piece of paper, one that was too similar to their previous in-class assignment. "No point stressing over something you cannot change. Here is your next assignment. Your topic is on the top of the sheet. You have 45 minutes to work on this with your partner. I assume now, you will take it more seriously."

Simon, Yuna's assigned partner leaned towards her and whispered, "How did you go with the first one?"

"Not good."

"Sorry, I also didn't do too well." He spoke with sincerity as he shifted his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose.

"It's okay, let's just get on with this one." With that, she flipped the piece of paper over after the teacher's announce of approval and couldn't suppress the urge to groan as she looked at her and Simon's topic.

_'Will cloning Human embryos lead to new treatments for debilitating deceases?" _

Even though they were assigned partners, everyone was expected to write up the report or essay on their own.

And suddenly, just for this period, everyone forgot about the Blitzball tournament.

* * *

Desperately trying to finish off the last of what they were writing, a few students purposely ignored Miss Daniels' command to stop writing.

"Understand that this is not a good habit because in the exam, if they say pens down, then they mean pens down."

Grudgingly, the teenagers allowed their pens to slip from their grasp, silently agreeing to her previous statement.

"Leave your work on the table. I will collect them." And then with a lighter tone, she announced, "It's recess."

As the students started to depart from the room, Miss Daniels made sure to grab Yuna's attention, "Yuna, may I have a word with you?"

There was a brief hesitation before Yuna spoke unsurely, "Uh, yeah."

Slowly, they both walked towards the front of the room after all the sheets were collected and sat down at the teacher's desk.

"Please do not be at all offended with what I have to say next okay Yuna?"

At this point, Yuna was hastily digging through her memory, trying to find if she had done something wrong.

Sensing her nervous demeanor, Miss Daniel's immediately waved a hand in the air, signaling that she wasn't in any type of trouble.

"Yuna, all I want to know is, did you help Tidus at all with his Camp evaluation?"

That was definitely not what Yuna had expected. Why would she help Tidus on the evaluation? Relief washed over her instantly, realizing that this was the reason why she was called to stay behind.

"Uh, no."

Nodding and believing Yuna without hesitation, she continued, "You must be wondering why I asked you that question." Taking her silence as a silent agreement, she spoke, "You see, I've taught Tidus before and let's just say, none of his work thus far has reached up to this evaluation's standard. I couldn't help but wonder if you had anything to do with it."

Yuna panicked, and quickly jumped to her and Tidus' defense, "Honest, I didn't write it for-,"

Soft giggles interrupted her hasty explanation before the blonde in front of her cleared her throat and mumbled an apology, "I know, I know. That is not at all what I meant." Then she took a moment to just look at Yuna, almost observing her. "You haven't read it at all have you?"

"Um, should I have?"

"Well that's up to Tidus. Look between you and me," she sighed whilst taking off her glasses, "Tidus' coach Auron came up to me the other day and we had a little chat about him. Basically Auron was asking me if I've noticed anything wrong with Tidus lately. Something about him being distracted during practices, well it's more serious than that you know what I mean?" At that, Yuna merely nodded.

"I myself would also like to know if there is anything bothering him. So I was wondering if you would have a clue about it."

"I uh, I'm not sure, sorry." And that was the truth. She honestly didn't know what was wrong with Tidus, but she was pretty certain it had something to do with her. And now, it left her feeling guilty as ever.

"Okay then, thanks anyway. You can go now."

Nodding, Yuna stood up and proceeded her way towards the door. Just before she left, she turned around and asked, "Miss Daniels? Um, why of all people, _me_?"

Once again, she gave Yuna _that_ look. Almost like a look of praise. "I can't show you Tidus' evaluation. But trust me when I say that it leads me to believe that ever since your arrival at this school, your presence has had an impact on Tidus. I would know. I've watched him gradually change, even if he tries to hide it."

* * *

If Yuna had any lingering thoughts of the scenario that played before her moments ago, it definitely left her the second she stepped out of the room as she was suddenly met with countless banners being hoisted up everywhere around the school. The sight left her staring stupidly at the many students decorating the hallways with Blitzball Logos. Every corner was decorated with something that was yellow and blue, and proudly written across the numerous banners were none other than the words 'Zanarkand Abes'. Along with the eye catching headings, their were also subtitles like, 'The one and only' or, 'The undefeatable' and so on.

As students excitedly decorated the hallway, that now looked completely over done considering that there were also pictures of the 'Almighty' Blitzball team, Yuna finally snapped out of her daze as a bunch of cheerleaders pushed past her in their uniforms that represented a particular player's number.

"They just like to flaunt to the school that they're also part of the Blitzball team, well that's what they like to believe anyways." The cool voice of none other than Lulu spoke from behind.

Without turning her head, Yuna continued to stare at the school that now appeared to be in the midst of a festival, "What?"

"The Cheerleaders. They think they're best friends with the Blitzball team. Well in a sense I guess they are… at least at after parties, if you know what I mean."

With the slight suggestive tone at the end of her sentence, Yuna immediately felt a tight squeeze at her heart, refusing to allow her thoughts to wander too far into conclusions. For a brief second she cruelly hoped that the team would lose just so that there wouldn't be an after party, however instantly reprimanded herself for that brief moment of selfishness.

"Is it normally this…" she left the sentence unfinished as she was unable to find the appropriate word for the scene surrounding her.

"Big, celebrated, or if you like, overrated? Yes. We might not have the most academic kids here, but Blitzball is like the pride and joy of this school. Well for as long as Tidus is here."

An unstoppable sense of admiration along with jealousy swelled within Yuna. Undoubtedly Tidus was known as the "Lord" of the school, but never had Yuna taken that unofficial title seriously. And now, it had become clear that as unofficial as it was, he was as close to it as anyone could ever get.

"Jimmy! We need three more banners over at the Gym!"

"Okay careful guys! On the count of three, you hoist it up okay!"

"Hey somebody! We need more fricking balloons here!"

"Yeah! We've run out of yellow ones already. IS ANYONE LISTENING!"

"Have the replica Jersey's been made yet?"

"Yeah, they're pinned on every bulletin board all ready!"

"Cheerleaders! We will follow through with the routine we practiced…"

"Kate! The ordered jerseys have arrived. Want me to stack 'em up?"

"No! Start selling them now!"

"Gotcha!"

"Oi! I specifically asked for a banner with Tidus' face on it. Why the hell can't I find the damn thing!"

Yuna's lips tilted upwards at the sound of his name. _'Make us proud Tidus.'_

* * *

"CONCENTRATE DAMN IT! YOU ONLY HAVE THREE MINUTES LEFT!" Auron's voice boomed through the stadium to ensure that the players could hear him from outside the sphere.

For nearly two hours, the Blitzers trained intensely non stop. The team was split in half, one playing defense, and the other playing offense. At every blow of Auron's whistle, there would be an immediate role reversal, defense turning to offense and vice versa, regardless of who held the ball captive. Muscles were beginning to noticeably tense up whilst bones were starting to give way. Many of the female blitzers and a few of the male ones looked oddly pale as their energy had by now been drained.

"45 SECONDS LEFT! KEEP IT TOGETHER!"

It had truly been an intense and grueling session as not once were the players allowed a short break. Had they tried to stop moving in the sphere pool to regain energy, they would have then been rewarded with ten laps around the sphere before resuming their position in the practice game. Fortunately, no one put Auron's warning to the test.

"3… 2… 1 AND STOP!" The shrill sound of a whistle penetrated the stadium much to the Blitzer's incredible relief, as slowly, many struggled to push themselves out of the pool.

"Well done everyone. Now get your asses off the bench if you don't want to see the Luca kids. They'll be here shortly."

His statement was only heard by a few as some had already retreated to the change room whilst some desperately ran to the toilets, hurling what they had for breakfast into the bowls. Thankfully a real Blitzball tournament only lasted an hour and a half including the 3 minute breaks in between and the constant player replacements, or also known as subs.

Even for someone like Wakka, it was undeniable that this training session was the hardest one thus far. Chuckling lowly, he asked, "You okay there brudda?"

"yeah.." was the weak response he received before Wakka was almost certain he saw a piece of cooked egg yolk spurt from his mouth.

"You'll be fine. It'll be hard on Friday, but we'll definitely manage." Tidus said as he began taking off his Blitzball gear.

"Confident are we?" a taunting voice belonging to no one from the Abes' team spoke out.

The entire locker room went quiet as the two rival teams stood opposed to each other.

"To think that I was actually looking forward to this challenge." He glanced at the figure hunched over the toilet before staring at his long time rival, "Guess we're just up against another bunch of amateurs."

His fists tightly curled into balls as his jaws visibly clenched. Tidus tried to remain unfazed by Bickson, but having him sound so much like his old man stirred something within him.

"We'll see who the real amateurs are on the night ya?" Wakka retorted, successfully provoking his team to laugh.

Bickson merely ignored him as he and his team gradually made their way further into the change rooms, seemingly getting ready for their training session. Although Tidus nonchalantly remained getting his usual garments on, he, just like the rest of his team, felt the tension in the air.

"Well we'll just have to see huh?" Bickson replied to the previous statement Wakka had made as he began to get changed.

Tidus knew just as much as everyone else did, that Bickson was only trying to provoke him. So to spare his team form further ridicule, he started making his way out after draping his sports bag on one arm and a white towel on the other. Just as he was reaching the door, Bickson stood in his way with an arrogant smirk that Tidus wished he could wipe off that instant without getting suspended.

"Just one thing," Bickson smugly said, "I'm tired of amateurs, so at least give me some sort of a challenge." Tidus merely ignored him as he continued his way out but pausing against his better judgement after realizing he had not finished.

"Don't want you to fuck up like your 'old man' right? You know what they say, 'like father, like son.'"

Had his back not been turned towards the taunting man, it would have been obvious to everyone that his right eye was twitching from the uncontainable anger. Slowly but surely, Tidus felt the blood reach up to his ears as the rage coursed though his entire being. His breathing became low, almost dangerous and he knew any minute now, he would begin to shake unwillingly.

"Why don't you just shut the fuck up Bickson!"

"You're one to speak Leathen. I'll see to it that you get your ass kicked on Friday."

"Potential threat, but from someone like you Graav? Who gives a flying fuck right?"

In the midst of all the insults, Tidus felt a hand land on his shoulder above his towel.

"Ignore the faggot. He's only trying to stir you up brudda."

That seemed to calm Tidus slightly, but not enough for his blood to cool down.

However, Wakka's words didn't go by unheard and finally thought it best to leave the _faggot_.

Much to Wakka's annoyance and Tidus' anger, Bickson still had one thing left to say. "But we can all excuse your 'old man' for losing that last game, after all, his _bitch did_ die days before." Then he laughed, "Get it? Son of a bi-,"

Before he could finish, a powerful and swift punch was delivered right across Bickson's cheek bone before an onslaught of harsh punches were delivered continuously at him. "DON'T YOU DARE SAY SHIT ABOUT HER YOU FUCKING CUNT!" By this time, Bickson who was pummeled to the floor had snapped out of his shock as he blocked off an incoming kick to his side and in return punched Tidus mercilessly in the gut, knocking the wind out of him.

To say that Bickson was shocked was an understatement. No one, and that meant **NO ONE** ever got into fights _before_ the game. That was just a no no. That would be the most avoided incidents of _all_ incidents.

Wakka, who was now struggling to pull Tidus back yelled, "Shit, Tidus, you'll get into trouble for this. He's not worth the time and effort!"

Blinded by pure rage and pent up emotions, Tidus broke free from Wakka's grasp.

"I DON'T GIVE A SHIT! YOU'RE GONNA PAY BASTARD!" And with that, he grabbed an unguarded Bickson by the collar and flung him painfully onto the lockers.

He knew Wakka was right. He heard what his best friend had said. Too bad it never registered. Because when it did, it was too late.

* * *

"So, tomorrow morning, on my desk, no excuses, no notes. If it's not here by morning, you fail it, simple as that. Dismissed."

Yuna almost leapt into the air out of happiness after two long periods of listening to Ms. Mann's ongoing lecture of human, to animal to environment rights. Quickly, she stuffed all her stationary and books into her bag before rushing out the door as if her supply of oxygen had run out.

Once she left the room, she was again bombarded with students, this time, twice the amount of them, either running around with white A4 paper and approaching every vacant student or sticking the A4 sheet outside of every single classroom.

_'Yevon, are they still decorating?'_

"Move Move Move! We need to get around to the whole school!"

There were many other shout outs but what they were saying, Yuna couldn't decipher as the size of the crowd completely muffled anyone's voices. Glancing around, she then came to the conclusion that the white sheets were being passed onto students to sign them.

"Hey Yunie! Woah! The hell is going on?"

"Did someone faint from excitement already?" Lulu asked sarcastically.

A frown made its way onto Yuna's face as she noticed that a few people were actually… CRYING! This was just getting scary. Two periods ago, everyone was running around joyously like they were at a damn parade, and now _this_.

"MAKE SURE TO STICK A FEW UP OUTSIDE THE STAFFROOM!" A student yelled across the hallway to another fellow student.

"WE'RE RUNNING OUT! WE NEED MORE PHOTOCOPIES!"

By now, the hallway was packed to the rim as student after student came barging in, desperately looking for the white forms. It was almost like no one knew how to speak without yelling and it was gradually becoming suffocating with the lack of space.

"I don't know. I walked out here and they-," Even Yuna had to strain her voice to a much louder volume just so that she could be heard.

"Yuna, Rikku, Lulu! Good! More people. Quickly, sign it!" A tall lanky student by the name of Marc panted.

Snatching the piece of paper from the exhausted boy's hand, Rikku read aloud. "Petition? What for?" Confusion now evident on all three ladies.

"Haven't you heard yet?" he asked with an incredulous expression as if they were the daftest people on earth.

They only shook their heads innocently, save for Lulu who remained in her poised composure.

"TIDUS man!"

Silent.

Rolling his eyes dramatically, he finally burst, "_He's been suspended from the tournament!_"


	18. Blitz Off Part I

**_Chapter 18_**

**_Blitz Off (Part I)_**

---------------------------------

Tick… Tock… Tick… Tock

The clock endlessly announced its every movement as it dreadfully ticked away its seconds of nothingness. Funny how a necessity as insignificant as a clock had always been subconsciously overlooked by the human eye, and yet when needed the knowledge of time, ones eyes would automatically and immediately shift towards a clock. But who cares right? Who cares if it lacks acknowledgement? A clock is a clock… period. It's always going to be there when you look for it. It's always going to be right next to you when you need it… right?

Wrong.

One day, the batteries that claim to run if for life will ultimately lose the battle. Then when one needs to know the time, that 'one' is screwed. Just like that losing battle of cancer that plagued the fragile soul and body of Tidus' mother. Just the way the grandfather clock ticked away the slow agonizing ending moments of his savior's life. Funny how everything that seems to only be there for interior design suddenly looks like a pebble in a shoe.

Bloodshot cerulean eyes glared through half opened lids at the clock, mocking, screaming and announcing the day of the tournament's arrival.

12.01 am

Two days, thirty-eight phone calls, countless amount of alcohol, thirty hours and counting of some Mexican soap opera…. and no word from Jecht. That was an eye opener and probably the talk of the decade, Tidus had thought sarcastically. He merely brushed it off, coming to the conclusion that Jecht was also knocked out from booz… just like he was…almost. And yet even with the amount of alcohol running through his once anger filled veins, he was sober mentally… kind of. He knew clearly what had happened to get him suspended. He remembered those harsh bullshit coming out of that prick's now beat up mouth. But one thing rang clear in his recollection of the day, and that was the infuriated look on Auron's face and those words that came afterwards that had his ears ringing deafly.

Tidus sat on his ruffled bed, clad in nothing but a dirty worn out shirt and a pair of 100 cotton pants, equally as messed up. His hair was oily and lost his usual vibrant shine with ends sticking out in places where it shouldn't. His once clear eyes were now replaced with small red lines, displaying the effects of alcohol. His eyelids drooped over, begging for a much-needed sleep. And in his right hand, was a can of beer.

His room was dark, save for the colors illuminating itself from the screen to his room, the type that would have eyes stinging from the unwanted intensity.

His mind was a complete blank. He had no conscious thoughts whatsoever. He knew he was suspended. He guessed that Yuna would look at him with disgust. He understood he had let down almost the entire school if not all, and he had already figured out the damn manipulator in the Mexican soap opera.. yet nothing registered. Maybe it was the effects of alcohol consumption or maybe he merely wanted to stop thinking, but whatever it was, Tidus, the star player of the Zanarkand Abes, was a pathetic wreck.

And in less than eighteen hours, once the tournament starts at six, everyone else was going to know.

Too bad he didn't give a shit, or else he would've done something to ensure himself a spot at the tournament. Too bad.

* * *

The school was back to normal once Friday arrived. The banners were still up with all the other decorations, but the mood was of a normal average day. It wasn't quite gloomy, but it definitely wasn't a festive mood… like it should've been. Although talk of 'the' Tidus was inevitable, people dropped the subject slightly in fear that it would further upset the school spirit.

Even after all the hard work particular students put into the petitions, rumors showed that Auron did little to acknowledge it and merely put it in the recycle bin. Some people resorted to taking down Tidus' banners, and when they were asked with what they were doing; their reply simply meant that they found the banners a type of mockery that Tidus would no longer play.

The team, well, clearly they were the second after Tidus to be suffering the most. After all, they knew more of the incident than most people did and though they understood Tidus' actions, human instinct could not help but slightly blame Tidus for his lack of control. To say they were angry with Tidus was a definite no, but to describe their mixed emotions as disappointment was right on the spot.

Rikku, Yuna and Lulu. To put it simply, Lulu was fazed, but remained indifferent, Rikku was, well, Rikku, one moment pissed off at almost everything, the next sad and sympathetic towards Tidus.

And then there was Yuna. Yuna didn't know what exactly she was feeling. Sure, she felt bad for Tidus and like most, disappointed, but something else lingered within her. Sub-consciously somewhere deep down, the brunette had long figured that the mysterious emotion was guilt. However, like a coward, in order to avoid self-confrontation and admittance, she would continuously push back the feeling and the realization and then distract herself from her own conscience.

Naturally she would cringe at the thought that she had played such a huge factor in affecting Tidus' mood and behavior. Although it was not at all her intention to cause the negative attitude, everything reminded her of the incident that segregated them. Had she not been so biased and narrow-minded with what she saw, perhaps this whole incident could have been avoided. But maybe, just maybe, this whole thing happened for a reason. Perhaps like in movies, it was suppose to bring them closer by throwing obstacles after obstacles in the pair of "star crossed lovers'" path. Or maybe it was just the little girl buried in Yuna making up pathetic clichéd excuses up for herself. Yeah, most likely. That's the effect of teenage love films for ya.

"So you girls still going later?" Lulu asked as everyone around them made a haste exit to prepare for the night's event.

"I am, you know, for the sake of it. I don't think it's fair to just give up on the whole team because one person got suspended." Rikku voiced, but not with offense and then spoke with a happier tone, "and to cheer Wakka on! Right Yunie? "

Snapping out of her reverie, she replied distractedly, "I uh..Yeah."

3.30 pm… 2 and a half hours left before the long awaited tournament. Yuna sighed.

* * *

If his cell phone was right next to him at that moment of its continuous ringing, he would've aimlessly smashed it where ever the direction his arm aimed at. Luckily it wasn't, and therefore all Tidus did was further bury his head under his pillow and continued sleeping. His last can of alcohol was around midnight and thankfully or not for him, he was slowly yet gradually sobering up. 

Sometime during his four hours of slumber, he had actually contemplated on getting up and taking a shower, but the thought never lasted long as he saw no point in doing so considering that all he was going to do was lie around and drown in his own self-pity.

With his head and left arm stuffed under countless pillows, his right arm resting next to his head, his legs tangled in his blanket and lying flat on his stomach, he soundlessly slept through the on going Mexican soapie. Had he not been so oblivious to his surroundings, he would've noticed that Jecht had walked in with a cordless phone, before leaving the room with a helpless sigh.

_"Hello?"_

_"It's Jecht." _

_With a loud sigh and an exhausted rub between the eyes, Auron replied, "Look, if you're calling about the suspension of T-,"_

_"No you listen to me and you listen carefully Auron." The determination within the constantly drunk man caused Auron's eyes to widen slightly. He wasn't sure whether he should be happy that his long time friend was finally pulling himself together, or that he should feel unnerved and slightly guilty with his actions._

_"Wakka has told me what happened." He spoke in a concluding tone as if expecting Auron to understand. _

_"And that does not change the fact that Tidus broke the rules. He of all should know better than getting into a fight right before the damn tournament. Do you honestly think I'm proud of what I did. I did what I had to. What kind of a damn coach would I be if I constantly bent the rules just for one player."_

_Holding the same amount of determination yet this time speaking in a more exhausted and calm note, Jecht spoke, "You're right. Tidus did break the rules. I am willingly to even put all the blame on him whether it be true or not. And yes, you had no choice but to suspend him, hell if it were me, I would've smacked some sense into that boy-,"_

_"Look Jecht," Auron spoke wearily, "the tournament starts in less than two hours and I am perfectly aware of my actions, I don't need recap-,"_

_"But," there was a pause, "you're also correct in saying that he of all should know better. So by saying that, which part makes you think that he would abuse the rule when he knew perfectly well what he was gambling with and knowing that if he lost, the impact would be far greater?"_

_Auron had no retort, so he continued._

_"Did you care to even find out from other players or even Tidus himself why he was in a fight?"_

_"Regardless. He was in a fight period. I need not know why."_

_At this point, Jecht's temper flared, "That kid was talking about his mother for yevon's sake! Look, I may not have been the best father to Tidus but let me tell you this, even I do not speak ill of his mother no matter how drunk or pissed I am. People have their limits, and that little prick tested his, simply because Tidus was unfortunate enough to have his personal life broadcasted to the ever fucking watchful public ever since he was young! How is that fair? I knew that the media would be onto me like honey to bees, but I never expected them to harass my family too."_

_Now Auron was truly speechless._

_Jecht__ had started to calm down already, "Wakka told me that Tidus had started walking away before that little bastard started him up again. That asshole obviously had the upper hand. It was a fucking trap. And you know what… I'm proud Tidus did what he did." _

_"And I believe it is you, not Tidus, who has let the whole team down. Tournaments come and go. I can't say that I'm proud that it took this incident for me to realize it, but the important thing is that I have. But not one's self respect, not one's dignity. They don't come and go. You either have it in you or you don't, and my boy has it in him. So let me tell you this Auron, it is your loss that Tidus is not playing. I don't think he could've handled the situation any better."_

_Just as Jecht had finished and was about to hang up without even informing Auron, he heard his friend speak up, "Wait."_

_Placing the phone next to his ear, he patiently waited. _

_There was a big sigh before he heard anything, "I'll take the suspension off him."_

_Before Jecht could thank or express his gratitude, Auron interrupted, "On a few conditions. One; he is to only play for half time and two; he'll be cleaning the gym until I can see my face on all the fucking equipment." Auron was obviously frustrated with the deal but nevertheless, he caved into Jecht's determination and his own sense of sympathy towards Tidus._

_He smugly made his way to his son's room and practically slammed the door open only to be greeted with the stench of alcohol and odor. He paused with a bitter look on his face, and then slowly and subtly, his head dropped as he shook it and sighed, leaving the pathetic sight to engrave into his mind. _

_"You know what Auron," with the disappointment hanging heavily off every word he spoke, Auron already knew of the outcome, "if this tournament really means something to him, then it's up to himself to get it back."_

_With that, Auron was greeted with a subtle click and then the dial tone._

_

* * *

_

"We are not taking the car!"

"I am not walking!"

"Well then you stay put and Yunie and I will go! And whoever said we were walking?"

"Why can't we just drive there?" Seymour whined.

Rolling her green eye shadowed eyes, she answered, "If you hadn't taken so long with that hair of yours," and to emphasize her point, she pulled on a few strands, "we wouldn't be late! I've called the cab already so tough."

"RIKKU! It's 6 o'clock. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the game start at six THIRTY!"

"Ah, so the idiot can read time. Well, _idiot_, half an hour ago, I would've been sure that there would at least be a few parking spaces left, but by now, do you seriously thinking we'll find parking!"

"Pssh, whatever."

"Stupid. Okay the cab should be here in about two minutes and you're already ready," she said, pointing at Seymour "and I'm," she left her sentence unfinished as she glanced at herself in a mirror. She was clad in nothing but a yellow bikini, a skirt that reached her upper thighs and a flimsy scarf. Her hair was nicely braided and her make up nicely accentuated her features. All in all, she looked presentable despite the lack of clothing.

"Yunie!" she screeched as the taxi honked outside, "Come on! Taxi's here!"

"Coming!" The brunette called back.

Unlike her cousin, Yuna opted for the more humble yet attractive look. Her hair was tied up messily with her bangs hanging naturally around her face. She had dark blue jeans that made her legs look longer and thinner than usual and a tight white wife beater that brought out her curves nicely. Her make up was done lightly with a bit of mascara and eyeliner to bring out her eyes and light pink lip gloss giving her lips a more pouty and full look. Overall, she gave off the innocent type of sexy look.

With one last look in the mirror, Yuna ran out to the taxi, taking only her purse with her. As much as her heart ached that Tidus was no longer playing, she couldn't help but allow herself to feel a bit excited and giddy that she was all dressed up for this occasion, although at the back of her mind, disappointment clung heavily onto her knowing that Tidus wasn't there to witness it.

As the taxi driver was on his way, Yuna couldn't help but admire the bright lights of Zanarkand. A small smile played on her lips as she blissfully ignored the two child-like adults sitting mere inches away from her as she recalled the peaceful and the almost perfect moment between Tidus and herself. She felt the heat rise to her cheeks when the moment she bravely initiated the first kiss with Tidus entered her mind. As much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't deny the feelings of absolute giddiness and happiness to overwhelm her when she thought of that night.

Oblivious to her occupied mind, the taxi had arrived at their destination. "Yunie? Yunie!"

"Y-yeah?"

"We're here!"

Stepping out of the cab, Yuna's eyes and mouth widened comically. To say that she was astonished was an understatement. She was so dumbstruck that she was vaguely aware of Rikku's constant bouncing around in excitement. So her cousin had been correct, the entire parking lot was filled to the brim and it was obviously noted that many cars were parked illegally. Taxi after taxi filed in with girls like Rikku in their skimpy outfits jumpily hopped out of the cab whilst large groups of both male and female loudly made their approach to the stadium.

As countless security guards stood outside the entrance with their stern looks, teenagers on the other hand jumped around outside as if in trance to the booming music as it vibrated against every human ear. Families strolled along casually as their young offsprings giggled insanely.

As the three neared the entrance where tickets were checked, they were forced to rub up against each other's shoulders as the amount of people desperate to get in was rapidly increasing. Desperate and angry shout outs were heard like, 'Come on, keep the line moving!' or, 'Let us in!' The screen outside the stadium showed the already speedily filling up seats inside and caused people to panic.

As Yuna, Rikku and Seymour were literally pushed inside, their mouths dropped open in unison. If they had thought that the outside scene was overwhelming, then they had thought wrong. Inside the circular stadium already about three quarters of the seats were already taken. The thunderous music pumped through every vein of Yuna's entire being as she felt like her heart would jump out any second from the intense drumbeats. Banners of both teams and a few individual players were plastered around the whole place. Lights were moving in all directions as green lasers shone skywards, announcing the tournament to the entire Zanarkand public.

"COME ON YUNIE! LET'S GET SOME SEATS!"

All Yuna did was nod. She honestly couldn't scream that incredibly loud.

* * *

After two minutes of finding their seats, Rikku was back up on her feet again jumping in excitement as she caught sight of Lulu. 

"Lulu! Up here!"

How Lulu heard her was completely beyond Yuna but thankfully she did, because the next moment, Lulu had planted herself next to Yuna in the remaining vacant seat in their section.

"YEVON! ISN'T THIS THE BEST?" Rikku squealed after giving Lulu and Seymour a brief introduction.

"YEAH!" This time, for some reason, Yuna attempted to scream from the adrenaline, although she was almost certain Rikku had not heard her and only relied on the movement of her lips. The atmosphere was truly incredible, it brought out feelings and characters from people and just for the time being, it helped people forget.

Suddenly the music's volume decreased slightly as an announcement was made, "Ten minutes until the tournament." And then the music was back up along with an uproar from the audience. To put it simply, people were seriously going crazy by now.

Yuna's smile was so broad she knew her jaw was going to be sore after tonight. However, her smile faltered noticeably once she heard a little boy behind yell to his mother innocently.

"I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE TIDUS!"

Her heart sunk to the very pit of her stomach. She turned around to look at the little boy and inwardly cringed from the look of pure glee and excitement in his green eyes. She jerked her body back to facing the now filling up sphere pool and endlessly chanted to herself, 'ignore it Yuna, just ignore it.' However, due to the increase of cheers, screams and everything she couldn't identify, her silent mantra went down the drain from the inability to hear even her own mind.

As if coming to a conclusion, she sub-consciously nodded and abruptly faced Rikku, "RIKKU, WOULD YOU KNOW WHERE COACH AURON WOULD BE?"

After a long few seconds of deciphering her cousin's words, she merely shrugged apologetically before pointing at Lulu.

"LULU DO YOU KNOW WHERE-," before she could finish, the raven haired beauty shook her head. Being the wise one and the sisterly one of the three, it was a matter of minutes before she knew Yuna would look for Auron. Yuna's expression turned into a confused one, wondering how Lulu answered her without knowing the question. It annoyed her slightly when the thought came into mind that perhaps, Lulu was simply uninterested and disregarding her.

That thought, however, did not last long as Lulu leaned into her and spoke loudly, "Why don't I just give you his address!"

Now Yuna was truly a deer caught in headlights. She immediately blushed crimson red. Why in the devil would she want Auron's address? She looked up to see her companion out right laughing. It shocked her beyond words. Lulu, being the poised young lady that she was, had never been seen to laugh so, so… uninhibited. It caused a little giggle to erupt from Yuna while at the same time knowing that the cause of this newfound behavior was due to the exhilarating atmosphere.

Lulu merely shook her head, reaching for her matching black purse. She quickly scribbled what looked like an address on a small white piece of paper before thrusting it into Yuna's palm. Blue and green eyes read the piece of paper until she finally realized what Lulu had meant before. She looked up at her older friend with a questioning gaze before Lulu returned it with a brief smile, and mouthed, 'Go!'

The music once again died down a notch as the commentator announced, "Ladies and Gentleman, would you please be seated as the tournament will commence in five minutes."

The rock music immediately pumped up, but this time, it was drowned out by the deafening, not to mention, piercing screams from the fan girls _and_ fan boys. The four large plasma screens around the stadium were now counting down for the tournament's arrival.

Without further ado, Yuna quickly got up from her seat and without giving an explanation to Rikku or Seymour, she desperately pushed her way down the countless steps before shoving pass everyone that stood in her way. Upon reaching the entrance, she smiled in relief when she caught sight of numerous taxis. As much as she was in a hurry, it still shocked her to see the countless people that were yet to go into the stadium.

Running to the closest cab, she quickly jumped in, threw the piece of paper to the driver and hurriedly asked the driver to get her to that place.

"You have to hurry. It's urgent!"

"Okay okay sweetie, you don't have to scream."

But those words fell upon deaf ears as Yuna's ones were ringing numbly.

* * *

Once the taxi arrived at her desired destination, she quickly paid him and then sprinted out. Whilst running pass the grand white gates, she failed to acknowledge the impressive mansion that Tidus called home. In such a hurry, she went straight to banging her fists on the double doors until they became sore from the blunt impact. 

Almost as soon as she stopped, the doors slammed open to reveal a pissed off looking maid.

"Is Tidus home?" she asked as tried to make her way in, only to be stopped by the plump maid.

"And you are?" a voice from behind the maid spoke up.

Yuna's eyes widened slightly before she collected herself and took a very brief moment to catch her breath.

"I'm sorry about that but I'm Yuna, a friend of Tidus'. I was wondering if he was home? It's urgent."

"I see, so you're Braska's daughter. I'm Jecht, Tidus' father."

Yuna had to keep herself from rolling her eyes, _'Well duh, who doesn't know you. I just didn't know you were his father.'_ The comment of him knowing her father went straight through her.

"So Auron sent you here to get Tidus did he? Didn't I say to him that it's up to Tidus himself." The last part was more of a mumble to himself but nevertheless, Yuna instantly caught on.

So does this mean Tidus was no longer suspended? She quickly shook her head. It doesn't matter anymore. It was a gamble in the beginning to come here in the first place. She would just have to take everything step by step from here onwards.

"Sir, if it's not a probl-,"

"His room is upstairs third door to the left." And with a polite smile from Yuna and a nod of acknowledgement from Jecht, Yuna made her way upstairs, only this time unlike before, she was becoming nervous and more hesitant.

_'Pull yourself together. Just get in there and do what you have to already.'_

With her newfound encouragement and courage, she marched her way towards the third door. Pausing for a brief second, she sucked in her breath before she firmly turned the doorknob.

What she saw didn't exactly come as a surprise, but somewhere inside of her, she had been hoping that she would not be met with this scene. Unknowingly she narrowed her eyes from the intense light coming from his plasma screen. Slowly she made her way deeper into what looked like a room that had just gone through a tornado before an earthquake hit it. As she neared the bed, she was finally convinced that the heap of blanket was undeniably Tidus.

Carefully and nervously, she gently pulled the pillow that was covering his head from his grasp to reveal a sleeping Tidus. His arm looked somewhat distorted from the position he was lying in but nonetheless, she ignored it and began softly nudging his left shoulder. Getting a lazy grunt from him was the only response. She quickly looked at her watch and instantly she was back into her panicky mode.

"Tidus." She said gently yet urgently.

Nothing.

Shaking him harder this time, she tried again, "Tidus."

Much to her relief, she received a more plausible response. "Go away." He replied sluggishly.

Definitely the alcohol, she thought to herself as she scanned the room filled with cans and bottles.

Running out of patience, she flipped Tidus onto his back and literally climbed on top of him with her bent legs straddling his hips and her hands firmly placed on both his shoulders. This time with a hell lot more force, she shook him until he would finally open his eyes.

"Tidus wake up now! Come on."

Being so desperate, she failed to realize the position she had placed herself in and simply continued to wake him.

Feeling himself being moved so drastically and feeling a sudden weight upon him, the Blitzball jock forcefully opened his eyes into slits. However, once his vision cleared, his cerulean eyes widened immediately. Was this a dream? It had to be. No way would he wake up with Yuna on top of him, like this, in this kind of position! This had to be a dream, a really hot dream, a dream he didn't mind not waking up from.

"Tidus! Stay with me here…"

_"anything you want baby.."_

"I need you to listen carefully…"

_"I've missed you.."_

"I want you to do what you have to do to get yourself ready okay?.."

_"you are gorgeous…"_

"Tidus?" from the far away look in his eyes, Yuna knew he had dazed out.

"Tidus!" finally snapping him from his own thoughts.

"Are you listening?" he merely nodded dumbly.

"Tidus, go get ready. You're going to the tournament." She said firmly.

This suddenly caused Tidus to acknowledge his hang over, wincing, he replied, "What's the point. I've been suspended." And then he turned his head, unable to look Yuna in the eyes. He didn't want to see her look at him with disgust. Yevon, he must look like the biggest loser at that moment. How could he ever expect Yuna to love him?

He felt a strong shake on the shoulders and automatically, he was drawn back to those eyes that he had grown to love and miss. "No. Listen to me Tidus. You are going and you will be playing."

He did not reply.

How long and how many times had he fantasized about Yuna, particularly with her in this position. But this was not how it was meant to turn out. He was supposed to also be happy and at the very least, clean, and she, she was suppose to be smiling down at him with the happiest expression. Not like this, not when he was a pathetic wreck and she, still looking as beautiful as ever if not more.

Yuna stared at him, long and hard, as if trying to make him understand her feelings that very moment. She was anything but disgusted with him. In fact, despite the fact that she was trying to convince him to play, she realized how painfully she had missed him. Looking at him now made her want to reach out to him and hug him, assuring him that she would always be there with him, through thick and thin.

"Tidus," she spoke with a gentle tone, "are you going or not?"

Still, he did not answer. He couldn't. He was suspended for Yevon's sake. What? Go there and get rejected in the face? No thanks.

Letting go of his shoulders, she reached for the back pockets of her jeans. Letting his curiosity get the better of him, his gaze once again fell upon the lady straddling his waist. It took every ounce of him to restrain himself from just grabbing her and kissing the life out of her.

Once her hands entered his vision again, the first thing he noticed was a small piece of paper.

Unfolding it four times, she shoved it in his face. Five words that he had not so long ago wrote to her. 'I'll do it for you.' He was surprised she had actually kept it AND brought it with her. He couldn't help but let his heart swell.

"What about this?" She asked seriously.

All he did was stare back at her never faltering gaze, but once again remained silent.

To say that Yuna's heart was crushed was an understatement. She should have known better. She had pushed him way too far and now, he didn't want anything to do with her. Yevon, who was she to just come barging into his life constantly. It was all her fault and she finally realized it. Too bad. Too late. She had just lost probably the best thing that had ever happened to her.

With a defeated nod, she slowly climbed off Tidus, making him immediately feel like something important was being ripped away from him. "Okay, I understand." Without looking at him, she left the room, along the way dropping the white piece of paper.

_'Understand? Understand what? And why did Yuna look so sad? Crap, do something, anything!'_

His mind screamed at him. He wanted to call after _her_, hell he wanted to chase after _her_ and hold onto _her_ and just make her understand that he would do anything for _her_…anything.

* * *


	19. Blitz Off Part II

**_Chapter 19_**

**_Blitz Off (Part II)_**

-------------------------------------

"YEVON! DID YOU SEE THAT BOBBY? PLAYER NUMBER 4 FROM THE GOERS HAS EVENED UP THE SCORE BOARD WITH ONE A PIECE!"

"THAT WOULD BE THE RISING STAR PLAYER OF THE LUCA GOERS, BICKSON. CAN THIS GAME GET ANY MORE INTENSE. THESE TEENS LOOK DEADLY SERIOUS!" the speakers throughout the stadium boomed with the loud and excited voices of the two male commentators, as the four flat screens showed the game in a more clear view for the benefit of spectators.

Seconds after Bickson had scored his first goal, the game immediately resumed back into play as the screen showed that there were only three minutes left in the first third of the tournament.

"Speaking of star players, the Zanarkand Abes' star player seems to be missing. Definitely a disappointment to his fans."

"Mm, yes. Where is Player number 7 Tidus. Don't forget, it could really hurt his team if his disappearance cost the team the game. One player can tip the scale, particularly if it's the star player."

Whilst they were commentating on the missing blonde, the players on both teams fought desperately to climb on top as the victor for the first third. However, given less than three minutes left, it was near impossible to put another point onto the scoreboard, thus leaving it one a piece as a loud siren sounded as the first thirty minutes had come to its end.

Quickly, they pushed themselves out of the sphere pool, huddling around as they took the opportunity to gain back their energy and plan their next tactics.

For the next three minutes, the music was blasted back on with the ongoing cheers and screams from the crowd. By now, the entire stadium was filled to the brim, but the crestfallen brunette made no acknowledgement of her surroundings as she gloomily walked her way back to her seat. She was beating herself up mentally, wondering constantly why she even considered trying to get Tidus to play. Had she not gone to pay him an unplanned visit she would've never had her spirits trampled on and could've still enjoyed her night. But now, not only were her spirits low, but the outcome remained the same.

It was as if three of her companions didn't even realize her departure as they made no sigh of recognition of her return. She inwardly gave out a sigh of relief when she sat down next to her jumping and dancing cousin. Even as hard as she tried to look unfazed in front of them, she was almost 100 sure she looked constipated.

Her heart sped up a bit when the siren rang, indicating the start of the second third was commencing. Maybe there was still hope left for her that she may end up enjoying the night after all. Doubtful, but hopeful.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN," as the commentator began, the players instantly entered the sphere and swam to their designated positions, "LET THE GAME ROLL!"

The blitzball was powerfully launched upwards as two opposing players shot up to retrieve it. Missing it by a mere second, the ball as a result was held captive by the Zanarkand Abes.

As Samuel kicked though the water, he was just about to pass the ball to another playmate when he felt an abrupt shove to the side. Graav had charged up and body slammed Samuel out of the sphere pool.

"OH MY YEVON! Now that is what you call bad sportsmanship."

"Mm. Doesn't look like young player number 13, Samuel, can play. He is struggling a bit to get up."

And he was right. His body collided forcefully onto the benches and into the audience as paramedics hurriedly pushed their way into the helping fans. Swiftly yet cautiously, they hoisted the Abe player onto a stretcher and instantly brought him to the locker rooms where doctors and nurses were standing by.

At this point, the game had long resumed back into play, however, not before a few string of curses were exchanged, a few physical gestures and a small portion of the crowd booing.

The timer read 26:34.

* * *

With only two and a half minutes left on the timer for the second third, the score was still level with a point for both teams.

Bickson cursed angrily to himself. To him, losing Tidus from the scene was sure to make this an easy win for them, however, to his dismay, he failed to realize the full potential of the Zanarkand Abes. With a look of angry determination, he once again planned to resort to unfair play. Swiftly swimming his way to a fellow teammate, he subtly mouthed a few words and a few gestures to him before positioning himself after seeing the nod of approval.

With the ball in the grasp of an Abes', Leathen quickly swam ahead to retrieve from his teammate. However, just as Danny was about to release the ball to throw to Leathen, a blonde came charging up from behind, elbowing harshly into his ribcage. Without wasting a second, Bickson swam up from the side, snatching the ball as he speedily kicked his way towards the net. Seeing Graav close ahead and closer to the net, he promptly threw it over to him, which he in return took the golden opportunity to score his first goal. And that he did.

Immediately when the scoreboard changed to 02:01, the siren once again sounded.

"YEVON, THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE! THE LUCA GOERS ARE NOW IN THE LEAD, BUT DID YOU PEOPLE SEE THAT? THAT WAS APPALLING BEHAVIOUR. IS PLAYER NUMBER 2 EVEN GOING TO GET BENCHED!"

"Doesn't seem like it Jim. I'm getting that he claims that it was an accident. Surely don't look like one."

"And the crowd is not happy, not happy at all Bobby. That's two players from the Zanarkand Abes unable to play due to injury. They lose one more and they'll have to throw in the towel."

"Mm. With only thirty minutes left for them, will the Abes be able to make their comeback or will the Goers go home as the victor, and let me remind you all, Zanarkand Abes have not lost a game for four seasons straight, and the Goers have not yet beaten them in any game whatsoever."

Jim, one of the commentators laughed, "I don't know about that, but look at the Abes, they are seeing red right now, and it seems, so is the crowd."

As loud booing was heard all over the stadium from the unfair play, the players surrounding Auron were struggling desperately to not run over and just beat the shit outta the red head Bickson.

"Coach that was fucking deliberate!" Leathen raved.

"I don't know if the team will last ya? We lose one more member and we'll havta call it quits. And Sarah," Wakka turned his attention to the female player, "you holding up okay?"

She merely nodded, though her face was paling as they were speaking. It was the time of the month for her.

"After the game, I'm gonna so beat the shit outta Bickson's and Graav's asses! Coach, I'm telling ya, they planned this shit all along, even the shit with Tidus man!"

"Shut up Leathen." Auron replied firmly, "This is what we'll do, Wakka, you stand by…"

* * *

"Oh my Gosh, that was so unfair." Rikku cried out passionately before she continued booing along with everyone else around her.

Yuna had clenched her hands into tight balls as she watched with exhilaration and agitation.

"BENCH HIM, BENCH HIM!" Rikku kept chanting.

All Yuna could think to herself was, _'If only you were here Tidus.'_

Three minutes was up and to announce that, the siren sounded.

"LAST THIRD OF THE TOURNAMENT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"

Full of determination, the Zanarkand Abes positioned themselves, glaring at the opposing team, whilst the Goers, namely Bickson and Graav, sported a really smug look on their faces.

"BLITZOFF!" and the ball was hurled upwards.

This time, the Goers were the faster ones to claim the ball. Once player number 5 held it firmly in her grasp, she hastily ducked under an opposing player as she did a little side summersault to twist her body away from any prying hands. Seeing a gap between two players, she swam straight ahead. However, as she was only concentrating on swimming forwards, she had completely disregarded her teammates and her surroundings, giving Wakka the opportunity to swim up from behind her and easily knocked the ball from her grasp.

With full force, so to prevent anyone from interjecting, he slammed the ball to Leathen, who was a good twenty meters away from him, before he pushed himself to swim quickly towards the net. Watching Leathen duck under players and twist his body here and there to keep the ball in his clutch caused a smirk to form on Wakka's lips.

_'Take this you cheating Bastards.'_

Just the way Auron had planned, Leathen immediately passed it to Sarah before she obviously weakly passed it to Wakka. Auron cringed when he saw Sarah's weak throw. That was definitely going to be taken advantaged of by the Goers.

Even with three players, including the goalie, ahead of Wakka, the orange haired player was still able to score his first point, making a very loud 'ding' noise on the scoreboard. It now read 02:02.

Wasting no time, the Goers quickly sped off with the ball. Inside Bickson's head as he swam behind his players, he knew he could either gamble with the game and see who would actually win after 24 more minutes _but_ he also knew that if he knocked out one more player from their team, they would automatically have to bail out. He needed this. He needed to win. He was quickly known to be the rising star of the Goers, and if by defeating the Zanarkand Abes, he would definitely be in the spotlight. He could _not_ gamble this.

Inside his mind, he did not miss the poor throw coming from that female. This was going to be easy.

He immediately swam up ahead of his teammate who had the ball and indicated for the ball to be passed to him. Once he held onto the ball, he paused for a brief second to search for the girl. Coincidentally, one of his own players was swimming very close to Sarah.

_'Perfect.'_

Pretending as if he was passing it to his teammate, he aimed straight for Sarah. Throwing the ball with enough force, it landed straight against her abdomen, pushing her at least six meters before she curled into a ball and started descending.

He faked a shocked look as the stadium gasped. This was it. One more player and the long winning streak of the Zanarkand Abes would come to its end.

"OH NO! LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER ABES PLAYER IS INJURED! DOES THIS MEAN THE GAME'S OVER ALREADY!"

All the players paused in the sphere in shock. This couldn't be it. No way. The stadium went quiet as the paramedics checked Sarah over. After a few minutes of examination along with the anticipation from the audience AND the players, one of the paramedics looked up at the commentators and shook his head before doing a crossing sign with his forearms.

Signing in disappointment, Bobby the commentator spoke, "Well folks, it seems that player number 15 cannot play, which sadly means-,"

"Wait Bobby! Look over there!" Jim spoke in the microphone.

The crowd was now confused.

"OH MY YEVON! IS THAT WHO I THINK IT IS!"

"I BELIEVE SO! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE STAR PLAYER OF THE ZANARKAND ABES HAS ARRIVED!" Bobby yelled excitedly.

Bickson's eyes glared furiously from the unwanted news. Though he still could not spot out where Tidus was exactly, he already felt himself tremble slightly.

With his hair now cleanly washed and his jersey clung on him in all its glory, Tidus jogged his way through the camera crew before stopping besides Auron. His coach in reply merely smirked at him before saying, "fashionably late?"

The blonde chuckled, "Yeah." He then squatted down to Sarah on the stretcher. "Glad you made it blondie," She choked out, "now go kick their asses!"

He placed a gloved hand on her shoulder as he nodded. Finally he stood up for the camera crew to capture him on the plasma screens and instantly, as he was seen by the stadium, the entire audience erupted into a frenzy of screams and cheers. With a look of determination, he walked over to the sphere pool before easily pushing himself in it. Once inside, the stadium again exploded with whistles, squeals, cheers, screams, chants and everything else in between. Slowly, but surely, the crowd gave a standing ovation to the young player. It wasn't so much because he was the star player, but simply because he had made it in time before the game came to an unfair end.

His entire team charged up to him and fiercely hugged him before they repositioned themselves once more for the last third.

"YEVON! THE CROWD IS ABSOLUTELY GOING CRAZY! HE'S SURELY STOLEN A FEW HEARTS THERE WITH HIS DRAMATIC ENTRANCE!" Jim joked. The females merely screamed.

"Yep, sounds like it!"

Yuna's eyes were glazed over. She couldn't move. She felt the smiling faces of her three companions looking at her but she showed no indication of recognition. He had never looked so beautiful to her in her life. She mentally had to tell herself that this was the exact same Tidus as the drunken one before. Even with all the admirable and lustful screams from the female population, she felt no jealously whatsoever; instead, she felt an immense amount of pride. Yuna suddenly felt a pat on the shoulder. She looked up to see Seymour looking down at her with a soft smile on his lips. He mouthed, _'for you.' _Before she could ask what he had meant, he had already diverted his attention back towards the game where currently, the Goers were in possession of the ball.

Her heart had long sped up and now she was smiling so broad that her perfect set of teeth could be seen. She was sure it was the impact of Tidus when she felt like she was going to explode if she didn't scream… or something. Therefore, like her over hyper cousin, she jumped up on her feet and started cheering so loudly she was sure that by tomorrow, her voice would be long gone.

* * *

'Wakka!' Johan's mind called, throwing the ball to him as he himself immediately ducked when he sensed a strong force coming up from behind him. He twisted his body in time to not only avoid a strong collision with Graav but to also make a smug and defiant gesture and expression.

Wakka wrapped his left arm around the ball, using his stronger one to push his body through the water. From the corner of his eye, he could see Tidus charging up from behind, obviously ready to have the ball thrown to him. The crowd cheered as the ball sailed to the blonde swiftly. Tidus didn't even have to look to know that Wakka was going to pass it to him, they were trained enough times to not need eye contact. The speed Tidus was swimming at was incomparable to any of the other players. Within five seconds of holding onto the ball, it was again rotated back to Wakka, who in turn, passed it to Deniva.

Tidus inwardly chuckled as he was vaguely aware of the Goers confusion. Though the ball had long left his grasp, Tidus was aimlessly tackled from the side by none other than Bickson causing yet another round of booing from the crowd. Bickson merely smirked before he swam off, leaving Tidus to glare at his retreating back.

Tidus felt a strong nudge to his side as he turned to see that it was Wakka, eyeing at the timer.

At that exact moment, the blitzball had been intercepted by Graav who smirked and swam off. Just as he set the ball up to kick to another team member, Leathen unknowingly came up from behind and tore the ball away. Graav kicked the water from anger as his face turned red.

_'That's for all the shit you pulled during the game ass wipe.' _Leathen thought to himself, quickly passing it to Wakka.

The orange haired besaidian looked up at the timer again and instantly swore.

00.59

There was absolutely no way he could score a goal from the middle of the sphere with less than a minute left. Desperately, he looked around and saw Tidus swimming up to him. He held his breath and begged to Yevon that this would work. Closing his eyes, he aimlessly yet forcefully hurled the ball upwards.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS PLAYER NUMBER 9, WAKKA, DOING!"

The entire stadium gasped, also confused with his actions.

Bickson and Graav tried to intercept the ball, but their speed only took them so far, leaving them staring skywards at the ball.

Like a snake, Tidus' body flew upwards, outdoing the two Goers as he steadily twisted his body backwards like he was doing a back flip.

Wakka had set up the Jecht shot for him and now, it was up to him to follow through with it.

The crowd had died down as they anxiously watched on.

_'NOW!' _his mind screamed as he quickly kicked the ball with all his force before descending downwards. Coming to a halt, he immediately twisted his body to see if he had scored.

The ball went straight past the goalie making a huge 'ding' noise as the timer hit 00.00!

"YEVON! THE ZANARKAND ABES HAS DONE IT! WHAT AN INCREDIBLE MATCH THAT WAS!"

"YES, AND LOOK AT JUST HOW HAPPY THEY ARE!"

The whole team had tackled Tidus into a large bear hug as the entire stadium erupted with deafening screams and cheers.

"Haha, and the Goers do not seem happy at all." Jimmy laughed, though not mockingly, as they watched from upwards at the kicking and the swearing coming from the team.

"Come on Yunie! Lets go!" Rikku yelled as she pointed at Wakka and Tidus once they had made their way out of the pool.

Yuna nodded excitedly as she grabbed onto Lulu's and Rikku's hands. Unfortunately, it seemed like everyone else had the same idea as people started leaving their seats and hastily pushed their way down to meet the winners.

Even though Yuna had paused in her position, she couldn't help but giggle at the behavior and expression on Tidus' face. It had felt so long since she saw him this happy. They were group hugging and cheering and even carried Tidus on their shoulders.

Camera crews tried desperately to get an interview from the star player himself as they shoved into the what now looked like a mosh pit.

Names were randomly screamed out, but one stood out the most. "TIDUS!" "Tidus over here!" "Tidus how does it feel winning the point for your team?" "Tidus did you plan that entrance?"

But all these questions and screams of praise went by unnoticed by the player when he was heaved onto the shoulders of his team. He had finally caught sight of Yuna and the first thing he could think of was how incredibly beautiful she looked standing there next to the waving and bouncing Rikku.

Sub-consciously, he spoke her name out loud. "Yuna."

Suddenly he saw Rikku pull Yuna down the aisle and knew instantly they were also trying to make their way to him and Wakka. Quickly, he jumped off the shoulders of his laughing friends and frantically tried to push his way through his screaming female fans.

Once they all made it to the bottom floor, Yuna thought that she was going to faint from the lack of space and air. People were violently pushing and shoving just to get pictures of the teams. Worse was that now, she couldn't spot out where Tidus was. She thought of trying to follow the shrill screams from girls calling out Tidus' name but soon realized that they were coming from all directions.

"Rikku!" Yuna called out weakly from the lack of oxygen, "Stop! There's too many people!"

At this point, Yuna was feeling somewhat light headed and believed that had she not been grabbing onto Lulu's arm so hard, she would've long collapsed. She looked around, still in search of the blonde when she begged to whoever for all the pointless screaming to come to an end. All her mind was able to register were the different names of the male players as people were rudely pushing her from behind.

"Wakka!" "Leathen!" "Tidus!" "Yuna!"

Her head snapped up. Yuna? Did she just hear someone call her name or was she now hallucinating? She took three quick looks at her friends, but they didn't seem to look in her direction in return. Yep, definitely hallucinating.

"Yuna!"

No. She couldn't be hallucinating. The voice was too strong, too clear to be fake. She looked up now, frantically searching for the person calling her name. As her eyes were speedily scanning amongst the many heads in front of her, she noticed one head that kept bobbing up and down. She squinted her eyes a bit just as the person jumped up again.

"Yuna!" It was Tidus!

He was jumping up to catch her attention, but his mob of fans continuously pulled him back down for a signature, a photo or even a kiss.

"Tidus." She called out quietly as she began pushing herself through the mosh pit.

He smiled a million dollar smile when he caught sight of Yuna making her way towards him. With determination, he tore himself away from those prying hands and squeezed himself through the crazy crowd. It almost seemed impossible, but they did it. They were merely a meter away from each other as Tidus longingly extended his right arm to capture her hand when an unwanted and rude pull, dragged him right in front of numerous microphones and cameras.

Almost like the parted sea had once again come back together, a whole heap of people, seemingly out of nowhere, suddenly tore the pair further away from each other as people rammed in between.

"Tidus, tell us how you feel right now!" an interviewer asked, thrusting the microphone in front of the distracted star player as he tried to pull away from them.

"Yuna!" he called out once more, leaving the interviewers very confused.

This time, however, the security guards and bouncers had rushed in, instantly escorting large groups of people outside.

"Who is Yuna?" another interviewer asked slyly.

But Tidus remained distracted as all his attention was concentrated on Yuna who was helplessly being pushed further away from him.

He was so close. So close damn it.

Finally, he watched helplessly as Yuna gradually disappeared from his line of sight as he sighed to himself, _'Yuna.'_


End file.
